Reach - Gloria Estefan

What it means to me

This song Reach, is from Gloria Estefan's album, Destiny, released in 1996 by Epic. I bought it while in America on a student work-exchange. Being one of only three CD's I listened to consecutively for three months, it left a fairly strong auditory imprint on me that I associate with my trip to America.

This song, for me, embodies what life is about - stretching, striving to be your best, pursue your dreams, reach for the stars.

For many of us, life starts as a faint dream. We dream of what we want, while we live in reality. What if you want something so badly that you just HAVE to go for it? You are willing to do whatever it takes. Move mountains if you have to.

Often life's achievements or disappointment are about promises. Those things we promised ourselves - a good life, time with family, time with friends. Breaking these promises results in disappointment - we are disappointed in ourselves. And then we finally get tired of breaking all these promises to ourselves. We make a commitment to keep our promises even if it takes us out of our comfort zones.

Yes, we might fail. But even if we fail, we'll be stronger for that. We'll know that we've put our spirits to the test. And if our spirits survived, we have survived. And we'll put our spirits to the test again and again.

And one day we will be successful. One day we will touch the sky and KNOW that we could reach, that we had put our spirits to the test. And we passed. And now we are stronger. Now we can reach further. Now we can rise above the stars. And be stars.

The Lyrics