So! If you haven't gone and read Giving Up Is Not An Option Part 1, go give it a read. It's the prequel to this article. Whatever floats your boat though.

For everyone else, regardless if you read it or not, I now present to you Part 2. If I remember correctly, I left off emphasizing how important it is to not give up on others. The irony in this article is that as I'm thinking of things to say about not giving up on yourself, I'm just pretty much done with the world with everything and everyone in it. But there's no chick flick moments this time. Sorry.

So what's with the Rocky II scene? Just a little something to connect recent events that's been happening to a close friend of mine, who was nice enough to let me use her situation as an example for this article. We'll call her Alice. I've known Alice since summer of 2009; that's about 8 years now and still counting. Now, her situation is something we can all relate to: parents. We all know that parents can get overbearing, over protective, unreasonable, and ridiculous, along with their utter refusal to just listen for a minute.

I know, I know. I have to get on with my point. Her relationship with her parents is currently a little turbulent, mostly due to the fact that no one takes the time to listen to understand; everyone just listens to reply. It doesn't help that not everyone in the house does their part and she gets the brunt end of it, whether it's her doing or not. Just not too long ago, a physical altercation just had her saying, "I'm done."

This girl tries her best to keep the peace and make everyone happy. She avoids confrontation because it's just not like her to get involved into something created out of stupidity. Alice tries her best to adult properly but is given no chance to. The things that she is suppose to do, like managing her finances, are done for her and it gets extremely frustrating. It's like being told to get a job and pay rent, but then hearing complaints that you're never home and out all the time. There's no winning. Especially when any effort gets disregarded, unconsidered, and stomped on like nothing.

The overall message of our conversation was, "Stand up for yourself and don't give up." Alice asked me, "Why? Every time I try to do what I need to, I get pushed back into my shell. I try to stand up for myself but my parents don't care about how I feel. I get called selfish and ungrateful." I simply told her, "And? You're just going to let them tell you how to feel? What to do? What to say? I understand that they're your parents but they're not your friends. Friends, like me, will get you into trouble; fun trouble, but things you shouldn't exactly be doing. But for you, your job as an individual is to grow from all this and learn from the experience. You do this for you because they're not living your life and they're not going to be around forever. You are capable, you can learn, and you can grow so don't just give up. You're not allowed to."

We didn't have this conversation to encourage disrespect with her parents or a fight between them. Alice, I've observed, gives up too easily once the situation get tough and I've told her this, not out of cruelty, but for mindfulness. Just because the odds are against you doesn't mean you retreat back into your little shell, hoping the situation would fix itself. It doesn't work that way.

So how does this little story tie into not giving up on yourself as well as the Rocky II picture? The biggest failure you could ever do is ultimately give up on yourself, when there are still options to go through. Realize this: we are only given a certain amount of time in life, so it'd be wise to make the best of it. So stop running. Stop hiding. Stop giving up. You owe it to yourself to see all these challenges and obstacles placed before you, through. If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work; that's okay. The difference is that you didn't give up and walk away while there's still other options to have exhausted. You tried, you did your best, and that's all anyone, even yourself, can ask for.