Perseverance

I lay backwards on my bed, my feet entangled in pillows, begging me not to leave; so I don't. An artificial wind blows across my face and I lean towards the source, the fresh breeze plays with my hair. From here I see the valley laid out below me through the window, but that is not what has my attention. I'm fixated on a small object on the book shelf. I move to it.

A small globe filled with pure white sand, given to me by my father to help me understand the one characteristic I lacked in greatest abundance: perseverance. I set the sphere back on its stand, paying heed to the metal plaque on the side. There, engraved in the metal, is a saying, ages old, that has driven me since that day I first understood it...

"The power to shape your future is earned through persistence. No other quality is as essential to success. It is the sandpaper that breaks down all resistance and sweeps through all obstacles. It is the ability to move mountains one grain of sand at a time."

Pride in myself and all I do, as well as my never-ceasing efforts, define me over the last two years. Looking back at who I was and who I have become has shown nothing short of a monumental change in personality, I have matured. The change however has mostly taken part in the last four months. For once I have been persisting at something that I truly want for myself. Something I still refuse to give up on, even as things get harder and harder. Yet I realize... I realize that for every ounce of effort I put in, for every inch I climb higher on the ladder to success the greater the distance I can fall. I climb with the blind hope and belief that I can reach solid ground once more and rest there.

I've seen that people sometimes believe they don't deserve someone. It does not matter if you do not deserve someone; as long as you give them everything you can give, you will deserve them.... they will deserve you. There is only one place in the world where pure and total altruism can succeed, and that place is love.

“Try and fail, but don't fail to try.”

-Jon