Each and every one of us is a unique creation and that makes us all different from one another, but we all share a certain commonality when it comes to us having to navigate through this crazy obstacle course that we call life. This journey varies from person to person due to the simple fact that we all want different things out of life. Some of us look for glory and fame, some of us look for a simplistic and comfortable life, and some of us lose our way during our time of seeking out the future we desire. We all have an idea of what we want our lives to be like and there are certain pathways that may allow us to obtain our hearts' desires. Of course none of these pathways are certain to get us to our final destination because like I mentioned previously; life is a crazy obstacle course.

Of course most of us wish for a journey with smooth sails as our dream rests on the horizon, but once again, this is just a wish. When I say that life is an obstacle course, I mean that figuratively and literally as we are constantly presented with obstacles to find our way around before we can reach the finish line and achieve our goals. But because we are all different beings, this obstacle course is uniquely made for each and every individual person. We humans are born from different backgrounds and different walks of life that can make navigating through life a tricky act. Some of us are born into riches while others are not. Some of us are born as social butterflies while others remain as recluses, and factors such as these tend to be the factors that shape our personalized obstacle courses.

As our journeys' begin while we are of young ages, there are certain factors that act as set in stone obstacles such as our family's wealth, our faiths and beliefs, and the way we perceive the world around us. Factors such as these are usually things that remain the same for quite some time and they shape our obstacle course from the beginning. Many of us tend to still be just fine navigating our courses with the "usual" obstacles until we hit an unexpected obstacle. We go from having to jump over hurdles to crawling in mud under barbed wire quite spontaneously and we immediately become stuck. We can't figure out how to navigate the obstacle or we get stuck because we are simply too scared to navigate the obstacle. These unexpected life factors are the ones to watch out for because they come in many different forms. These factors include issues such as ending relationships, losing your job, becoming ill, and sometimes even the death of a loved one. There usually isn't much we can do about factors such as these because of our lack of control over them and this is a crippling thought as these are crippling situations. We stand at the foot of these menacing obstacles and we think of giving up and quitting. And as great as that temporary idea may seem, it most definitely isn't the right thing to do.

Ask yourself what an obstacle course is. It’s usually some sort of race that has a rewarding finish line at the end that contains barriers that we must cross to get to that end. So if you quit your course and give up, you will never ever reach that finish and taste that sweet success. The course is meant to be hard and it's normal for us to get angry and stressed as obstacles present themselves, but we have to complete the course. No matter how large an obstacle is, no matter how long it takes to navigate through, no matter how many times we fail and fall trying to get over it; we have to keep trying until we can make it to the next obstacle which puts us so much closer to our finish line. And with each obstacle we pass we become stronger, we become tougher and filled with this grit that allows us to do anything we give all we've got towards. That's life! And as long as we never give up and continue to push through, we will make it to that finish line! There is a trophy waiting with all of our names engraved on it waiting to be thrust into the sky as we stand victorious! Once again, that's life! Life grants us each our own personal story of our journey that we embarked on to get where we are but that story can only be finished if we finish. We just can't give up in the face of difficulty. We all go through it and we all have the ability to push through it. All we have to do is keep trying. Even better words than mine were spoken in none other than Disney's "Finding Nemo," where Dory exclaims happily, "just keep swimming."