Endurance

I, like all people, have had many times in my life where I felt like I was simply enduring, just trying to make through the next challenge.

Since returning home from an LDS mission and starting college, life has offered me many such experiences. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to be melodramatic. I know how richly I have been blessed, and understand that I have much to hope for in life. It is not my intention to complain, but to simply state that these experiences I have had, these experiences of struggle, have shaped the way I view the world.

I have long believed that experience is the best teacher we have. True to that belief, I have learned far more from heartbreak and disappointment than any victory or triumph.

I have learned that by simply enduring, we can build our character, develop a hope for the future, and cultivate and faith in ourselves. While I understand that the day of bliss and ease will never come, I am hopeful that I can endure through this next stage of life.

This past week has been about enduring, as will the next. But I am hopeful that things will work out, the dots will connect, and I can learn to live a rich and joyful life.