Hard Things

Well, I've finally graduated from BYU. The student loans and exam overnight study sessions are over, and I won't be buying another textbook for a long time. Earning this degree may be the most significant accomplishment of my life. It's been a tough journey for me. Some people think graduating from this school isn't that difficult, and believe you could cruise by and still finish with respectable grades. I didn't have that experience. I had to work for 5 years and accrue a certain amount of loans to get through. It took a lot more strength than I thought I even had, and there were moments I wanted to give up because things seemed so difficult.

However, one day when I was particularly frustrated, I stopped and read a discourse by Jeffrey R. Holland, an Apostle in the LDS Church, titled "However Long and Hard the Road." In that talk, one statement stood out to me... something that granted me determination to continue when I'd nearly decided to give up that semester. The statement read:

"The best things are always worth finishing."

I took this statement and put it on the wall above my bed, to remind myself every day to finish what I'd started. I needed a reminder that, even when things are tough and I don't believe in myself... even when I'm not sure I care... that it would be worth it. That someday I'd look back and remember that I finished something difficult.

I want to encourage anybody reading this to keep going. I know there's likely something you're discouraged about. And I know it's hard and you don't know if it will be worth it. I'm telling you that it will be worth it to finish what you started. Someday, even if the accomplishment feels insignificant... if it's hard for you, you'll look back and remember that you finished something difficult. And it will help you in the future to build on your accomplishments and grow. Don't give up on something great without making every possible attempt to succeed.

There was another, more lengthy statement earlier in Holland's piece, something that might be inspirational to more than just me. He said,

"What if beyond this class or that test, this date or that roommate, this disappointment or that dilemma, you really can see and can hope for all the best and right things that God has to offer? Oh, it may be blurred a bit by the perspiration running into your eyes, and in a really difficult fight one of the eyes might even be closing a bit, but faintly, dimly, and ever so far away you can see the object of it all. And you say it is worth it, you do want it, you will fight on."

Words to live by. 

Link to Elder Holland's article: http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=873