Life is hard, there's no doubt about it. These past two weeks have been some of the hardest of my life. I've felt like everything happening was out of my control and I needed somewhere to turn. A close friend of mine wrote this for me and I am editing and publishing it on my friend's behalf. Reading this helped me put things into perspective and look at life through a different lens. I hope this reaches someone who needs it.

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No matter the how, or the why, somehow, the universe began. Scientists don’t know the how yet and they may never know, but what matters is that it did. In all the solar systems and all the galaxies, the Milky Way happened to be formed in an alignment of a Star and planets and moons and orbits and rotations in a unwittingly perfect balance. Then, in all the improbability of all the planets rotating around the giant star in the middle, Earth happened to be the perfect distance away from the sun; so that a single celled organism could live and sustain growth.

Then, in all the time logs that the organism could’ve taken, it happened to evolve exponentially, setting into rotation the quick, million-years process to create a being. From that being, of all the possible animal and natural routes the evolutionary tale could’ve gone, humans happened to slowly creep to the top of the intellectual chain.

Out of all of the directions that humans could’ve gone, they created communication, and civilization, and countries. From all those nations that civilization designed, our ancestors, even just one, happened to land in the one you call home, a country that allowed your parents to find each other, no matter their race, gender, orientation, or financial status. From your parents, there were an infinite number of possible DNA and chromosomal combinations that could’ve have created any individual human being and their consciousness, but they happened to create you. Then in all of the possible defects or disabilities, your body happened to be able to maintain homeostasis, allowing you to think, learn and love, all while digesting food, and pumping blood and even breathing, without you knowing it.

That balance that goes all the way down to every little atom that makes up your entire self, equally goes all the way up to our somehow perfectly balanced Milky Way.

Of all the more probable results of life, we happen to be conscious, we happen to experience life not just in its flourish and its lust, but also in its pain; and its sorrow. Of all that could’ve been, we happened to live.

As humans we so desperately want to succeed, failing to realize as soon as we have lived a day, smelled a rose, or felt an ounce of love, we have already surpassed all those that never were. From the second we are born we are already a success.

From there, we only have 80 years on the earth, during which we get to celebrate however we see fit. All of life is a celebration of success. You do not owe anything to anyone for that success. Your one duty as someone lucky enough to experience what most never will, is to celebrate to the fullest of your abilities, and then to help others celebrate to the best that they can.

So next time you panic over whether you’ll graduate, and work, and marry, and therefore succeed, remember you’ve already succeeded. The rest of life’s ups and downs, laughs and cries, are all the icing atop of a very unlikely cake.

-The Author

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You are a success. It is time that you believe it and start celebrating your life.