Saturday, March 28, 2015

Never Give In, Never Surrender

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard..." John F. Kennedy

The hard times in our lives either break us or define us. There's no middle ground in the matter. This world can, and often does, try to drag us down into the depths of complete despair.  Through natural disasters or man-made ones. Through life events that hit like a tornado on a calm Tuesday. Through even just the constant drudgery of daily living. It is the hard times like these that can either destroy you or define you.

I live with depression; and have for as long as I can remember. There have been days, many of them, when even the sheer act of getting out of bed is a task that feels impossible. When your entire body aches with despondence. Well all looks and feels lost; and even the slightest set back is a monumental defeat. But I still get up. I still pull myself out of bed each day and face the world. I do what I can to fix the brokenness inside me-mainly with copious amounts of caffeine. I do this because giving up and giving in is too easy. I do this because I would rather go to the moon than feel like I'm trapped to the earth. 

I have also had some monumental set backs in my life. It hasn't been smooth sailing by any means. Yet I tackle those setbacks the same way I tackle my depression. When work became scarce in 2011, I up and moved to Texas to better my life. When I moved back for a supposed promised position and it fell through, I looked for other work instead. Even now, when work has become a burden and money has become extremely tight, I applied to a myriad of companies and put my resume on many job sites. The result of this was that I had two separate interviews yesterday and a third recruiter left a message on my phone. A few days prior to that I had another interview with another company. 

I don't like the thought of fate defining who you are. Life is a noun, but it should be lived as a verb. When the going gets tough, the tough do what they can to fix it or change it. Even when times are good, you do what you can to make them better. Never let internal defeat stop you from aiming for an external victory.

So, go forth. Live. And never give in and never surrender.

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