"You can't skip chapters, that's not how life works. You have to read every line, meet every character. You won't enjoy all of it. Hell, some chapters will make you cry for weeks. You will read things you don't want to read, you will have moments when you don't want the pages to end. But you have to keep going. Stories keep the world revolving. Live yours, don't miss out."
-Pillow Thoughts II

I have often heard the saying, "either everything happens all at once or nothing at all" and while I find this to be very true, I must admit how much I hate how uncomfortable the latter can be. Because while we wish for nothing in times of great excitement, having nothing going on can be just as jarring.

Living in a fast-paced nation has enabled us to believe that we must always have something to do. Which is why we sign our children up for more activities at the mere age of 8 years-old. Which is why we advocate that our high school and college students be involved with multiple extracurriculars on top of their already dense workload.

So that we might prove ourselves in our abilities to withstand the impossible

Until our bodies begin to creak and groan in ways that disallow us from continuing this strenuous workload, and we begin to feel guilty. As if we have failed as human beings because we don't have the wife and kids by 25. As if we have failed because we cannot decide our major by 19.

When in reality, what we are learning is that we are human. But most importantly, that the future and the present are out of our control. And that we must learn to embrace whatever is destined for us and trust in the process.

Because after all, we have to read every chapter and meet every character. We can't just skip to the "good" part of life, and we wouldn't want to because it is in our hardest moments that we learn who we are and what we are capable of.

Without suffering we would never know peace. Without effort, we can never feel pride. Without time we could never learn the power of hope and the pain of patience.

Because when we finally reach our end goal, we won't remember the easy moments. We will remember the moments that nearly brought us to our knees. We will remember the days where we almost gave up but somehow tried again.

So even if today feels like it might kill you, and even if you don't believe you can achieve your goals regardless of how far out, I hope you might find peace in knowing that you are closer today than you were yesterday.

But most importantly, that in order to grow and in order to one day say with pride that you made it, you first must take the time to read the day/line in front of you. After all, it just might be your favorite chapter yet.