During freshman year, my “Dean of Pledges” gave me and my brothers the best information a man can ever learn….”Pain is Temporary…Pride is Forever!”. 2009 has been full of challenges….people walking out of my life, people running into my life, some setbacks, a few disappointments here and there, the discovery of frienemies, etc etc. Each one of those events took a painful toll, but as a result made me stronger. There were times I felt the rain wouldn’t let up…and I even wanted to give up. My photography started to grow and truly reflect the gift that God has given me, and even some folks couldn’t even appreciate that. They tried discourage me, take my talent for granted, and at one point even defame my name. It shook me for a couple of minutes, but there were hundreds of others who felt slightly different and provided the strength I needed to go on. When the door to one school I invested time and energy into magically closed, another one graciously appeared. When some people decided to take a seat in balcony of my life..others move to the front row to cheer me on. I’m grateful for everyone and every obstacle however (good or bad) … What made me reflect on this quote is because the pain we feel in our life is only a temporary side effect of the event.
The second part of the quote states that pride is forever, and is not to be taken as the pride that makes people arrogant but as the pride in which you accomplished something and you can look back at it and know that it’s something that if people ask you what you have accomplished you would tell them it was that. To me, that’s perseverance.
The quote means in life there will be times when you will be under the pressure and you will be only steps above crumbling under that weight. These situations will put you through great pain to do what you need to do and even though it would be easier to give up, you try even harder and push yourself to go through it. Once you push through, you will look back and say that even though it was hard the end result you have was worth all that work. 2010, I am ready!
