Check out this story on breaking through mental barriers

with some cool art

In August of last year,

I did a little life evaluation. I knew I wanted to adjust my actions in certain areas of my life, and one of those areas was giving back.

I've been very blessed throughout my life. Fortunately, my parents immigrated from Venezuela when I was young, allowing me to experience life in two different cultures. I've also been lucky to witness my family move up a few socioeconomic classes. We started at the bottom, like many immigrants, and my parents worked very hard to make something of themselves. Eventually, they were able to send us off to college, travel, and give us opportunities we would not have had otherwise.

I kept pondering on how to give back. It's hard for me to give back monetarily at the moment, my finances aren't there yet.

Then I thought about what impacted me when I was younger,

and I had recurring thoughts of the time I spent as a kid watching anime and looking at comics. There is a recurring theme in these stories; a character usually faces trials and tribulations to get what she wants. Ultimately, she looks back at her journey and realizes the experiences and people within it are important. The characters in these stories spoke to me because I felt like I was going through a similar story of my own.

Alas, the best way to give back was to write a comic. But what about?

I consulted with my dad, who suggested I write a comic to teach real estate, so I began with that goal. As I thought and wrote, I realized this wasn't what I wanted to write about. The younger me would've never picked up a comic about real estate because real estate is just a vessel to build wealth, not a source of inspiration.

So I pivoted and pivoted and pivoted. Eventually, I felt like I needed to buckle down and choose a story that was easy to follow and conveyed the message I wanted. That's when Parallels was born.

I've attached the first three pages of Parallels below,

but if you want to see the whole story, I suggest heading over to the website. My team did an excellent job putting together a highly interactive website with fun nuggets within it and the entire first chapter, which is 18 pages of comic with additional commentary from me (I recommend reading the commentary). Enjoy!

Intro

Sup guys, My name is Adan. I'm a regular person like you who is trying to figure out this thing called life day by day. Some days are good, and other days could be better. I've had many experiences in my life that I thought were unique, but when I look back at them, I realize that everyone has their own parallel experiences that have made them happy, sad, angry, excited, etc. Indeed, life moves on, and you will continue accumulating these experiences. They are what make up your life. I wrote Parallels because I wanted people to relate to the main character, Ski, who, like all of us, faces many parallel experiences both as a kid and an adult. All of these parallels have something in common. They are what we perceive them to be in our minds. In other words, our mind is powerful. It controls how we handle situations, and it determines who we are and who we become. I hope that parallels will make you 1% more aware of the power of your mind. Trust me, you can achieve great things with it.

Starting with the end in mind

I wanted this first page to show a sneak peek of Ski's future self, both in his younger and older versions. In both instances, he wakes up with a breakthrough that he has been working on for 245 days. When we start a new endeavor, we often need to start with the end in mind. Knowing precisely what we want our results to look like can motivate us to start. That is why I wanted this page to be at the beginning of the comic. Starting is usually tricky, so any way to make it easier is a plus. Is this page an actual moment in time? Or is it Ski's mind visualizing what could be a breakthrough in the future? Read on to find out.

Day 0 is the easiest pt 1

This is the genesis of the series. Ski is beginning his journey in a new world. His dad is waiting for him and his mom on another planet, Sutato, and you can really see Ski's excitement. New beginnings are exciting. We are moving away from our daily routine, and it's easy to imagine the possibilities that new endeavors may bring. In truth, day 0 is easy because we have yet to actually start. We haven't been punched in the mouth yet.