Strength comes in many forms. It’s walking away from an unnecessary fight when everything in you wants to destroy the other person, it’s being there for someone you love day after day when the pain they feel makes them say unbelievably hurtful things, and most of all it’s knowing that life is worth living even at the worst of times. My grandmother is my source of strength. I see in her everything I want to be. I have role models and heroes I idolize but a book or a biography have never been able to show me in living breathing form what strength is. She was there when her mother passed away and after sleeping together in the same bed for over forty years, she was there the last night my grandfather breathed air. At 65 he died of cancer and now she’s back again to relive those same moments and see a daughter through the most difficult challenge of her life. No one knows how much time they have and as much as we convince ourselves we’ll live forever we won’t. Do what you need to do now. Live life, don’t go through the motions. When you’re lying there in your death bed what do you want to remember? That you were rich and powerful always putting yourself first or that you experienced life and everything it’s meant to be. Don’t choose a job that makes you rich choose a job that you would do for free. Find something you’re good at and makes you happy. Most of all find someone who is worth sharing that happiness with; someone that will be there for you everyday when you’re at your worst; who will quit everything to give you the attention you need, and who will hold you for hours when you have no idea why you are crying. A photo album doesn’t show you the bad times you had to go through to get to the next good one but it does show you that there will be a next good one. Be strong.
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