Just recently one of my closest friends sent me a stuffed animal goat in the mail. After opening it and discovering it was from her, I proceeded to send her a video of me jumping around holding the goat, telling her how thankful I am and how much I love her while trying to keep tears of joy from spilling out. You might think that I’m crazy, but I’ve been having a rough time and this goat means the world to me.

We have to step back in time a few years to understand why on earth this goat, and goats in general actually, mean so much to me. During my junior year of high school I took a college US history course with the most amazing teacher. In this class, we learned that farmers on lands with lots of cliffs and hills had problems with farming cows because they kept falling off the cliffs and hills. The farmers needed money and animals that would work with the land they had, so the farmers got rid of the cows and brought in the goats. Mountain goats have hooves that are hard and bony on the outside, but soft on the inside. Their hooves also allow for their front toes to come together and go apart so it is easier to grip surfaces. These special characteristics of their hooves allow for goats to climb treacherous things. Just look at this goat climbing a cliff!

So probably one of the least important facts I learned in that US history class sparked my new life motto; “Don’t be a cow, be a goat.” See, if goats can regularly climb cliffs like that, then you can get through anything.

Indeed, myself and my friend that created this phrase have both faced pretty serious and rough times in our lives. I’ll say right now that she’s one of the most resilient people that I know. As for me, I just kind of keep going. I figure if I keep climbing that cliff the view from the top is going to be amazing.

Now back to present day. These past few years have been some of the toughest years I have ever faced. I’ve had to deal with a lot of things that were just not in my life plan. But “don’t be a cow, be a goat” has managed to help me get through my diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder, with possible depression. It helped me get through family and friend stuff that I’ve dealt with, and the whole ordeal of going off to college. I’ll admit right now that with my anxiety and panic attacks my first semester has been quite difficult, but my life motto makes it easier. There’s no surefire way to survive this thing we call life, but everyone has something that makes it easier.

So maybe my thing’s a little weird. It probably doesn’t make sense to a lot of people when I whisper “gotta be a goat” and do all the things I don’t want to do. Most people probably don’t follow a Twitter account that solely tweets about goats, look up pictures of goats when they’re going through a rough time or dream about maybe having a small goat farm one day. It’s also probably safe to say that many people don’t have a stuffed goat to hug when life gets to be a little too much to handle, but most people probably don’t have friends as awesome as mine either. But my thing has gotten me through a lot and I’m always going to be grateful I have it as a motto.

To my history teacher and friend that helped me come up with my life motto, thank you. I know you probably don’t care about it anymore but I still do. “Don’t be a cow, be a goat” has gotten me to where I am now. To my friend that sent me the goat, it’s one of the most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me. I hope this helps explain why I love it so much. To you, whoever you are, if you need some help getting through life you can borrow my motto. I promise that it’ll help a little. Just remember don’t be a cow, be a goat.