Anyone who said life is full of happiness is one of two things— born lucky or with money in their blood, or are just idiots. Maybe I’m being too harsh. But it’s something that I thought needed addressing.

An important point of life is that there’s no going back, you can only go forward. But because of this, there are moments where you screw up. Or something just didn’t go the way you wanted it to. Thus, it leaves a stain on your mind and heart.

No matter how big or small the impact it had on the rest of your life, you wish you could go back and change it.

Then there’s the paradox: If that screw-up or mistake never happened, you wouldn’t be here today. Or it would happen later at a time and potentially take away what was originally a happy moment. When you meet other people, it's then that you realize you’re not the only one trapped in this paradox. Everyone you meet and will meet has had regrets and mistakes.

If you ever get to know me, I can tell you firsthand that I have a lot of mistakes and regrets. But these people, myself included, can somehow keep working and be happy despite you knowing the aforementioned fact.

So how do I do it? Let’s take a small example from my own past.

One big regret I have is that I suffered from depression in my first year at college. Regardless of depression being a big problem that needs to be addressed in today’s society, looking back on it now. I wish I simply had a better grip on myself so I could have done so much better. But alas, the paradox— if I didn’t become depressed then, I wouldn’t be here having learned my lesson. Maybe to a bigger extreme, I may have never written for Odyssey or met many of my friends and mentors.

So to answer you question, how do I do it? By relying on the one feeling that hasn’t let me down.

Hope. That one feeling is what drives me.

Sure, it might sound like I’m joking. But think about it; Why do you try anything? Because you believe it’ll be done good and in your favor. Since the end of my college freshman year, hope has been my one driving motivation. No matter how bleak the situation or difficult the task, the feeling that I’ll be able to accomplish it all has been my sole motivation. Not money, or power.

Just hope and consequently, the drive to never fall to despair ever again. I ask you give it a try. Use hope to fuel all your actions. It might just be the one thing you needed to find yourself and take those steps forward again.

Sounds like something out of a cheesy anime, doesn’t it? Well, there’s a reason those are still around to this very day. Hope is a lot more powerful than people think it is.