" You know, one of my best friends back home told me something once that has effectively shaped my desire to put up with the tough slog of life. My friend, Darin, had just saved my life two weeks prior and had stopped me from doing something that would have forever ruined my life just three days before he told me one thing.
I was at a point where life seemed as if it were some great mountain that which in order for me to succeed in, I would have to take the ardurous journey up to the peak, but if I turned back towards the base that I had been accustomed to for the past two years, I would have an easy journey but would forever be on the ground, wishing of the possibilities of the peak. When I explained this to Darin (in these exact words) he merely looked at me and said:
"Calvin, if you decide to view life as some great slog up a mountain then what stops you from getting to the top?"
"Because I keep falling." I had answered. "everytime I get to a stable point some rock comes loose and I fall back down. And falling... Failing hurts.".
With that he merely looked me in the eye and said "Have you tried falling in reverse?"
And the next day he left for the Marine Corp and I haven't seen him in almost two years. But his words stuck with me and have become somewhat of my motto. For awhile I wasn't sure exactly what they meant but recently I have interpreted them as the fact that, yes, life is hard and, yes, we will fall at times but as long as we get back up and don't allow ourselves to fall too far, eventually we will succeed.
And I will reach the peak of my mountain. "
This is me retelling the incredibly powerful departing conversation I had with Darin. The one person I've told this to, before you all, I hope has taken into account the fact that I decided to tell them. I also hope that that person will feel free to talk to me whenever they want to vent. Not to brag but I'm one hell of a listener.
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