Howdy, a first perspective

Read a quote today, can't remember who said it. I apologize.
"Brick walls aren't there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show us all how bad we want something."

In high school I would have read that and interpreted it only as a challenge to find and achieve new goals or dreams. Unbound and headstrong, I would have said the quote means all one has to do is want something and call within themselves the power to obtain it and it will be theirs.

I had run into almost nothing resembling a brick wall up to that point in my life.

Now, having not only run smack dab into a few brick walls but realizing that it was I who laid most of their foundations, I have a different perspective on the impact of the above thought. I believe my high school response still holds true for almost every person in America, but I don't believe that is what the quotee intended to reveal.

My present take on the quote is this:
Obstacles and difficult circumstances exist, not because of the active malevolence of any one entity, but as a result of living in a world where man is self-aware, free-willed, and lives a finite life on this terrestrial sphere. It is the perspective with which you chose to view those obstacles and their implications that governs the life you live. Therefore, you govern the life you live.

I now face many brick walls that impede my path to the things I believe I want. I face them carrying a heavy weight on my shoulders. Instead of being afraid of them I see those walls and feel that weight making the journey immeasurably more fulfilling and worthy.

I realize I speak from a highly privileged hilltop, I was born and raised in the United States of America, but I don't believe my perspective is the sole property of a given citizenry or a consequence of a nation's prosperity.

I believe it is an intrinsic characteristic and the unique potential of humanity.

*--I beg for criticism. Perspecitve is refined and expanded only when shown others'.