This time, two years ago, I might have laughed in the face of anyone who told me I would be where I am now. Certain aspects of my life seemed like a continuous spiral downward and even the simplest and smallest tasks became, well, painful. I had complete lack of motivation to do anything, to be anything. Days ran together, weeks were just one lump-grey area that would soon become lost to my own conscious mind. Sadness filled the most joyous of days and I couldn’t help being lost inside of a fog that was seemingly never-ending. It was as if I lived in slow motion, forgetting who I was as a person and letting others define me until I was completely lost. Everything felt unbearable.

Then, something began to change.

With each passing day, I worked hard to become better and to love myself and try for myself. With each failure, I grew stronger, even though it did take time for me to realize just how much that failure truly affected my life – for the better.  That quote, “time will tell,” is very real. I think of my past failures today and each and every one of them led me to where I am and I can honestly say, that I have never in my entire life been as happy as I am right now. I say this with confidence because I worked hard to be this happy. All of my sufferings were for this very reason.  

There have been many times when I have thought that I failed. Many of those times I actually did fail. Though, if there is one thing that I have learned from all of my failures is that if you choose to rise again, to face the possibility of failure, you will see that your opportunities of succeeding are a lot more frequent and a lot more rewarding.

So, keep trying. Being afraid to fail can cause you to never succeed. I’ve lived in the cycle of accepting failure, but now, I’m taking a stand and looking failure into its smug face – I will prevail. Just as all of you will too.