I don’t really know why I’m writing this, except somewhere, to someone, to no one, I owe an explanation. I also deserve a small rant. The past two months have stripped me of everything I believed to be true, and all my perceptions have become a gallery of laughing spectators. This whole big thing we call life is absolutely insane and has severely twisted ways of tripping us up and holding us carefully at the same time. All I can say is that I got a second chance at it, and the blows keep coming harder and harder but all I can do is roll with them, because giving up is not an option any more, and there is beauty underneath all of the suffering, and an exuberance that emerges in survival. Every day, we are fighting, fighting, fighting to survive. I’m not the right person to say if it’s worth it or not, or to give advice how to swallow the pills we’re given, or how to show humility, or give forgiveness, or find a little corner of happiness to hold onto when we slip. But I know there is a reason why I am here, why you are here, and why time runs in circles, and why things happen the way they do. We are both slaves to destiny and masters of choice. We have an innate bilateral symmetry that manages to be both. Someone told me there are no do-overs, but there are don’t-do-agains. I may not care for this person, or perhaps I love them wholly. I think it could be both. When these scraps of wisdom float by, grab them and put them in your core, no matter who says it. It could be an ex, a professor, your mom, a stranger-it doesn’t matter. They are giving you a gift. Try it all, and if it doesn’t work, move on. Hurt people and get hurt. Go out of your way once, and if it doesn’t prove to be in your best interest, walk away. Do what you want, but don’t destroy yourself getting there. Just keep walking in the direction you feel is best. Everything is difficult, and it will always be difficult. That is why this life is so ******* magnificent. Each day we can celebrate that we made it. There is nothing more pure, or more raw, than moving forward and understanding that no matter how hard things are, and how ****** everything looks, if you just keep moving, and don’t look back in order to bring the past with you, it’s not horrible at all. Each rough patch is just a foothold to climb on to. We all have to be up to get down, and down to get up. No matter what choices you’ve made, or the guilt you carry, know that tomorrow you can wake up and check that baggage at the door, and simply walk away with a list of things you can’t do over and things you won’t do again.