Can't stop, won't stop

Title is stolen from Nike, but I feel like this is just the attitude you have to have when you have hard things to get through. Just keep swimming. Never give up. Put one foot in front of the other. Easier said than done, I know. But when we somehow find a way to just push through, we eventually end up at the end, even if we don't know how we got there.

For example, last week I finished the semester. It wasn't easy. College isn't really easy. Finals always seem like they will be the death of me. But somehow I walk out of that last test and realize that I did it, and I'm still alive. We can survive and feel accomplished by not stopping. Just doing our very best, even when we feel like we can't go on. My dad always told me that I wasn't a failure unless I didn't finish. There were times this semester where I felt zero motivation to study. Where I couldn't even stay awake sitting in the library. Where I just wanted to run away! (Sometimes I did, but I'll get to that). However, I knew I didn't have a choice, so I just thought about how I want to be happy in the future and took another step forward.

Sometimes, I had to literally take that step forward. These are the times when I didn't quit, but took a little break. I love to run, and that's what I would do to keep me going. If I tried to go a whole day with just study and no work out, I would feel like...just yuck! You can also find that thing that makes you happy and gives you that little boost to keep going. It helps to find something to work towards. I purposely registered for half marathon that was the week finals ended. It motivated me to just finish classes strong so I could go to St. George and run that race that I'd been looking forward to for months. So I felt good finishing finals, but the real feeling of accomplishment came when I crossed that finish line.

I can't even begin to describe how amazing it felt. Yes, while I was running my knees hurt and I was hungry and tired and wanted to stop and walk, but I just kept going. I wanted to be able to say, "I ran 13.1 miles without stopping." We all want to be able to say we did our very best in whatever we do. And when we do that, imagine how it will feel when we cross that short term finish line, or the long term one at the end of our lives. I want to be able to say that I took another step forward. I kept swimming. I didn't give up. I'm not a quitter or a failure, because I FINISHED.