Yes, life is tough, but just because it’s tough, it doesn’t mean it has to be a struggle. Just because life is tough, it doesn't mean we can't enjoy it regardless. I guess I don’t know much about living yet because of my young age, but I’ve concluded a lot about it in my meager 1.5 decades of life already. The most important thing I’ve learned, which seems to always slip my mind in my darkest moments, is that life is exactly what you make it. (cue the Hannah Montana song— life’s what you make it, so lets make it rock! make it rock!)

We've all slipped up before. We've all fallen down and felt like we couldn’t get up, but that’s exactly where we’ve all been wrong. We can always get up, and in fact, the thing is, the longer we sit down or the longer we choose not to try to stand up, well, simply put, the longer we’ll stay on the ground. The more we dwell on our mistakes in the past, the harder they’ll hit us in the present. People always say life is about making mistakes and accepting, rather than denying them, but personally, I believe everybody has forgotten about an important step after that— it’s moving on. It’s being able to accept that we’ve screwed up, and it’s being able to get up on our feet from falling down. It’s being able to grab a hold of the life that has been spinning out of control right in front of our own eyes.

Making the most out of our life isn’t even just about over coming hardships— how about happiness? Whilst some of us may choose to sulk about not having enough friends or not having that perfect boyfriend, how many of us are actually being proactive about it, though? Yes, I am usually a quite cynical person, but the truth is, the world is actually a lot brighter of a place than it may seem. In fact, I used to think a certain clique was quite exclusive, and it had always instilled bitterness within me-- how tight-knit and closed they seemed. But recently, however, just on a whim, I decided to take the initiative to talk to a few of them more, and to my surprise, they were all very friendly and welcoming people. We can complain about not having friends or being “forever alone,” but are we actually making any effort to make new friends or putting ourselves out there to find new loves?

Even when it comes to things like bullying. While we may feel inferior to others at certain points in time, who’s to say that we have to feel inferior? Our feelings of inferiority are only caused by ourselves. Who’s to say that we must let this person or these people have some sort of power over us?

Although I've only been on this earth for 15 years, I believe life is all about strength. I believe life is all about testing ourselves and consequentiality proving to ourselves that we are strong enough to over come whatever stands in our path because in truth, we are our own worst enemies. We are the only ones that can stand in the way of our goals. We are the only ones that can make shadows from our sunshine. We are the only ones that can impede our ability to defeat our own battles. No one else and nothing else can do that except ourselves.

I know life has been tough for a lot of us lately, especially my friends and I, but here's something I want you to remember: don’t let anyone ever knock you down. Don’t let anything ever knock you down. Once you can get over the fact that you are your own worst enemy, and once you can accept the fact that you do have the will and strength to subdue whatever stands in your way, you can start to move on. Wake up call, clean slate, start over new.

Lastly, I would like to remind you all of a line from my favorite poem:

"I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul."

-Invictus, William Ernest Henley