If there's one thing you learn through struggle, it's that it never ends.

You'll always be facing a new battle, and once you conquer one, you're in for another. The good news is that with each new battle, you are strengthening and empowering the fighter in you. The bad new is, you'll sustain countless injuries. And they'll leave scars.

Life is a battlefield. And as a fighter, you are learning how to fight as you take the hits. I have come to believe that every individual has one major life event that brings out the fighter in them. All the previous troubles are meant to prepare you for the most important trial coming your way: a fight that brings you to your worst, but leaves you at your best.

So what’s the point? Why put yourself through turmoil, struggle, and pain that leaves you breathless, hopeless, and helpless?

Because you have a fight to win, a light at the end of the tunnel to reach. It’s hard to imagine, but the very difficulties placed on your path are the very milestones you need to pass in order to reach your destination. With no obstacles, no twists on the road, and no surprises, victory makes no sense. It will just be another gift taken for granted.

And to all those “experienced” ones who tell us that we must take the shortcut because they have “been there, done that”: don’t paint another fighter’s canvas as though it’s your own. Every single person has their own battle to fight, their own tears to shed, their own pain to persevere through, their own lessons to learn, and their own victory to experience. While our battlefields may converge at times so that we can hear each others' stories, each of us has a unique destiny to unlock. Your key cannot unlock my door and my key cannot unlock yours, no matter how majestic our individual keys may be.

This world is composed of fighters. And most of the time, we never hear their stories. But beneath the many smiles you receive every day, be sure that beneath those sparkling eyes and smiling face, there is a fighter fighting a fierce fight.

But perhaps that is the very key to their happiness. They see the light at the end of the dark tunnel they are in, and they are determined to find their way to it. Those smiles are signs of a fighter who, despite the most hopeless situations, has faith in what most will consider a dead dream. But what seems like a dead end to every one else, is the very lock that only you can open — no one else is meant to see it.

So hey little fighter, soon things will be brighter.