This I Believe

This I believe:

I believe that you cannot experience true happiness without experiencing any pain. It took me a long time to come to this conclusion. I was in a very verbally abusive and emotionally distressing relationship for three years. I was afraid to leave the guy because he made me believe I was ugly and worthless. I thought I would never find another boyfriend again. One day he decided he didn’t want to be with me anymore. At the time I was devastated. I didn’t know what to do; it was like my whole world had been turned upside down. I became so severely depressed I stopped talking to my friends and I wouldn’t leave my house. I thought things were never going to get better.

After months of feeling worse than I ever had in my whole life, I slowly started talking to some of my old friends again. On one of the first days of spring my friend picked me up to just go drive around. We had the windows down and we were listing to music. It suddenly occurred to me that for the first time in months I was happy. Before all of this happened, I would not have been excited to be driving around at all, but because of what I had just gone through I was so happy just to be out of my house. That’s when I realized the hard times that I have gone through really let me appreciate the rest of my life.

I once heard a quote that said “no one can see a rainbow without going through the rain.” I might have traveled through a lot of rain, but that is what made it possible for me to see how wonderful my life actually is. I believe it’s the struggles and pain we endure that defines us. If someone goes through there whole life and never has anything bad or painful happen to them, what do they have to compare their happiest moments to? I know there will always be rain clouds ahead but after they pass, I will be a stronger and happier person. This I believe.