As I sit on my bed trying to figure out what the heck my life is, I catch myself looking at the whiteboard that is hanging on the wall across from me. It is not the whiteboard itself that has caught my attention but the three small words that are written under the title “Goals for 2016.” I guess on the first day of the year back in January, I decided that future me would one day look back at the board and need some reassurance to keep going. The board read, “Don’t give up.” Each word bigger than the next, one after the other.

I sit here on my bed, staring at these three words. I see them there but realize how hard it is to actually follow them. “Don’t give up.” I’m sure we all have been at this crossroad before. The moment before we decide to give up on something like a job or a relationship. Maybe even on something as little as a dance class. At this moment, faced with the decision to keep going or to give up probably exhausted with the toll it takes on our mental health. But I sit here and I realize that the words are foreign to me. If I decide to not continue with something, does that mean I gave up? If I just stopped doing something because I found it too difficult to continue or I found a fork in the road, is that giving up? What is the big deal with people giving up? My question really is: why do people give up so easily? What happened to the strong humans we used to be?

We are challenged every day with surprises and inconveniences that disrupt our idealistic days. Instead of looking at these surprises in a negative way, we should take these bumps in the road as challenges and challenge ourselves to see how strong we are. We should not just give up everything that we have worked for because we have been challenged with something that seems way over our heads. If you are thinking of giving up anything that you have worked so hard towards, take it from someone who used to believe that she had everything taken away from her. So much that she had to write on her wall, “Don’t give up,” to remind herself that she could make it through whatever challenged her at that moment.

We were born as human beings and by being born as humans, we were given the opportunity to do whatever we dreamed of. Yes, there will be challenges and obstacles that we did not plan for ourselves but we, as humans, have the ability to fight past those inconveniences. The more we continue to fight, the more we grow. The strength that is gained when someone decides to keep going rather than to give up speaks volumes.

So as I sit here in my bed, another day, staring at the wall deciding whether or not to give up, I am reminded of those three words I wrote months ago reminding me to keep going and to never give up. Will I feel the same way tomorrow? I don’t know but I can only take it one day at a time. So ladies and gentlemen, “Don’t give up.” It’s worth it.