Keeping it together is easy when things are going well. The true test of who you are way down deep comes only when you're in the valley.
After tumbling down, will you just lay there and become a part of the landscape or will you stand up, brush yourself off and keep putting one foot in front of the other?
When it's time to head back up the ravine, will you climb and claw your way up and tell yourself you can do this or will you just keep trudging along making lateral moves while mumbling, "that's all I can do"?
Will you be gracious, thankful and kind and even happy for other people who are ascending out of the valley ahead of you or will you let your time down there get to you and let pride and negativity drive how you treat those who could give you a hand up?
Will you learn, build character and become a stronger, better person from your climb or will you get lost in the valley, and let it consume you, and forever stunt your growth?
I hope you choose the harder path and keep moving and challenging yourself to be the best person you can be through it all. I hope you gut it out, ask for help and show true grit in even the worst hour because you can take more than you think, so suck it up and climb. You can find your way out but you gotta move.
Warning: The upwards path will be infinitely more difficult and painful. It's going to be messy, and ugly, and you're going to question yourself and your abilities everyday. You will be tested in so many ways, and just when you realize the only way out is to keep climbing, it's going to get vertical. This is when you'll need to dig deep and have faith. But, it's going to be worth every step, every breath, every tear if you just believe it can be done or gotten through, whatever IT may be.
Only then will you see what you're made of!
