I know there are a lot of people out there who are born and instantly have something that they’re good at. Something they enjoy doing. Something they think about constantly… that thing being the last thing they think about before they fall asleep every night, and the very first thing they think of when they wake up in the morning. Something they’re painstakingly passionate about.

For some girls its dancing so long and hard that their feet bleed. For some guys its breaking so many bones in football that they forget what it feels like not to be injured. And as life goes on, and levels of maturity grow, that someTHING, may turn into a someONE for many people. Suddenly, you can’t imagine rolling over to shut off your alarm without a good morning text from that special someone.

And then there’s… well… the rest of us.

Rolling over to our sides every morning, still exhausted from staying up so late studying the night before. Surrounded by textbooks heaping with messy, smudged, gel black pen Calculus notes, overfilled laundry bins, a mini fridge filled with nothing but bottled water and an empty carton of coffee creamer, all in hopes that today will be easier. Today will be the day that all your hard work pays off. The day that you wake up without dark under eye circles. The day that you don’t have to chug three mugs of coffee before getting to your 8am… and 9am… and 11am… and 2pm two hour bio lab. Oh, and then just having enough time to graciously grab a greasy slice of pizza from the caf while sprinting to catch the next bus to get to work. And then coming home just to study as long as you can without your eyes shutting.

Wash. Rinse. And repeat.

Why?

Well… if you weren’t in my category of “the rest of us” as I explained earlier, then you won’t really understand. Even if you are a part of this category, you honestly probably don’t know why you’re doing it. It’s hard to understand. Hard to grasp. Why we, as individuals living on this miraculous planet, spinning in the middle of nothingness, who can quite literally do whatever we want, are choosing to tear ourselves apart to the point of utter exhaustion.

Sure, we’re tired. Exhausted. I could make an entire paragraph full of synonyms to describe how we feel.

But you people don’t get it.

You can’t stop. You can’t give up. Because all of this… it’s what “the rest of us” have been searching for our whole lives. That thing that lights a fire in our hearts and minds.

Maybe you’re the girl who wants to travel the world and close business deals for the rest of your life. The thought of that makes your heart ache you want it so bad. Or the guy whose heart starts racing a million miles a minute at the thought of saving lives. The thought of that makes studying for chemistry, hours on hours on end, a little more bearable.

So, please, I beg of you… never lose sight of what your end goal is. Because TRUST me I get it. It’s hard to stay in instead of partying all night. It’s hard dragging yourself to every single one of your classes, when it seems like the finish line is light years away.

But do it for the little girl or boy that is yearning for that passion. That light. That look of passion and fire in your eyes when you’re finally doing what you love in life. You know what they say… you can’t get a rainbow without a little bit of rain. I know that sometimes it may feel like a hurricane, but sometimes it takes a little bit, or a lot, of destruction to rebuild yourself. You got this.