Sometimes life can seem like a never ending roller coaster. Just when you are at the peak of a mountain, you are knocked down by a torrent of destruction. It's like one moment you are in the light of sunshine, but the next you are stuck in the darkness of a storm. The situations you experience can feel like too much to handle. Like a weight of pressure is crushing your skull, urging you to fall and give up.

For a time, things seems to be going great, and then something traumatic happens that suddenly changes your whole demeanor. Even at a young age, I can say, that I have already undergone the ups and downs within the cycle of life. The thing that keeps me jumping over the hurdles is hope. Without hope, you feel lost in a dark tunnel, with no sense of direction and no spark of light in the distance to encouraging you to keep going.

I think too many of us allow the past to be our control and we fall into the trap of eternal gloom. We wallow in our misery and let the despair drown out the joy in our souls. Where might hope be in the times of trial? Does life ever get better? We ask ourselves this, but do nothing to search for the answers. Instead of letting circumstances defeat us and make us lose our sense of purpose, we can chose to make a change. We can make a choice to strive for happiness.

It takes a while to get to a place where the things that used to matter, are now no big deal. The issues that made you cry, made you angry, or feel lost from the world, suddenly become shadows of the past. For a while, it doesn't seem like you could ever get over the struggles you've faced. Even after the situations has played out, you still continue to think about it, and you probably feel that the thoughts won't stop. I myself have been in this place, but eventually the hopeless recollections simmer down.

Hope has to be a constant reminder to yourself not to let life take you down. Honestly, I have lost all hope before. Hope is not an easy thing to keep in the midst of trials. I discovered overtime that my situations could always be worse; that I needed to be thankful for the things that I was blessed with. Being thankful helped lead me into hoping and believing that things can and would be better in the future. But that doesn't mean that I still don't fall into a space of hopelessness.

I think that it is normal for humans who have been faced with many challenges to have moments where they want to give up. Its how we counteract these moments that make a difference. For instance, we could either be soaked in sadness or rejuvenated with gladness, but it is a free choice. If we want hope, we have to look for the things that bring us hope and hold onto them, so that in the midst of a tidal wave of sadness, our defenses are ready to fight back.

I've learned that having hope is a mind battle. It's like fighting against yourself, and you have to be prepared to shut out the darkness when it threatens to tear you down. Yes, easier said than done, but it takes practice and strength, which we all have somewhere inside of us. Life definitely has a way of being destructive, but we also have the power within us to be reconstructive. If we are looking for change, we will eventually find it when the time is right. Stay strong. A broken path can always be repaired.