Unlike most college kids on spring break, I didn't seem to have much of one. With a demanding major like mine, the grind never stops. Believe me, I knew what I was getting myself into when I enrolled in college. I love to challenge myself and keep myself busy but sometimes I too feel lost or hopeless when I'm putting in immeasurable hours of work and not seeing any progress.

And so, I paced the floor back and forth, until I plopped onto the couch. The only thing I could bring myself to do is cry and think that I'll never be able to get to my final destination in life if I can't pass those "weed-out courses." It was then instead of going to sleep or hanging out in the garage, my father decided to comfort me instead.

I got the usual from him: How was your day? What's new?

Of course,the waterworks began. It was in that moment that I told my dad how lately I've been drowning in school work, no, the college life. He responded with what I've been needing to hear for the last twenty years of my life. Truthfully, I think every person could use his advice now and forever.

Here's what he told me:

Before the break-up of Yugoslavia, my father was doing what any typical young adult would be doing with their life. He was a prospective engineering student, and just like myself, a diligent one. He mentioned the way I had been feeling lately brought him back into his old shoes.

The unimaginable happened. A brief moment in time, and my father found himself not in a classroom, but a concentration camp with other innocent men like himself. It was then he emphasized how life is cheap.

All the little things he would normally get frustrated over in college, at home, or with friends didn't even seem to matter anymore. He had to worry about his life being on the line. He had to take care of himself, yet he was also worrying if he would ever be reunited with his family. He was thinking about how he would get through another day.

The moral to his story is now forever engraved in my mind. It makes me realize my tears and uneasiness won't make changes to my life. There are bigger things to focus my time on. As much as your education should be a top priority, when you weigh it out, it's no match to you and your health overall.

Sometimes, life is going to take you through twists and turns, and you may have to make a few sacrifices (maybe with your sleep schedule or skipping out on a Friday night), but you cannot beat yourself over it each and every time. Give it a rest once in a while. You can only give it your all to a certain extent, until it starts to become an unhealthy habit, and even become an unwanted lifestyle.

Dad, I know you and mom gave up everything you had to give me a better life. You came to a foreign land with absolutely nothing, and took the opportunity to make that nothing into something. You've allowed me to have everything I've ever needed, and wanted to live a simple kind of life.

It was hard for me to understand all the advice you tried to give me before, and I never listened. Now the older I get, the more applicable your advice has been for my life. My eyes have been opened for the first time in a while, and I understand now! I push myself to do the same as you did twenty short years ago, and I hope someday I can return the favor you've given me all these years, and be just as successful and joyful as you are today.

I hope you know your words, and who you are as a person, means the world to your daughter. I am lucky that I was granted you as my role model, my sunshine at the end of the tunnel, and the best dad in the universe.