Pain

This morning we received an email with an attachment about the pain that people wrote about earlier in the semester. To be honest, I had actually forgotten about the exercise and quickly scribbled something down when we were told to do it. As I began reading the excerpts, I got the chills. I could not believe that people have gone through such terrible things at such young ages. I would have thought that the people writing these things were in their 60's, not early 20's. I got tears in my eyes when I read a few of them. It's weird to think that I see these random people in my classes each day, and I never think that they have had such painful experiences in their lives. I say hello to people and don't think twice about it.

I liked how at the end it was written, "and you want to add to someone's pain?" I try each day to be a truly nice person. I will now try 150 times harder. It reminds me of a quote that I once heard that goes something like, "Be kinder than necessary to all those you meet. For each person is facing some kind of battle." So true! I never think when I meet someone that they have other things going on in their lives. As humans, we tend to forget about others. I want to add to someone's happiness, not take away from it.

I thought it was interesting that all these quotes were from people that are in a leadership class. Great leaders have to overcome huge obstacles to get places in their lives. These are the leaders of tomorrow. These people will overcome their personal hurdles, as they have done before. These people have chosen to go somewhere with their lives by enrolling in college. While many would be stopped in their tracks and just quit, these people haven't. I say a prayer for each person that they may have strength and continue on their own personal paths to success.