People are going to walk all over you constantly. People are going to hurt you, make fun of you, use you, and abuse you. And you know what? Sometimes there isn't even anything that you can do about it. This world is terrible, and more times than not, the people in it are just as terrible.

But you can't let that stop you from doing the things that you love. If everybody gave up the instant someone said something bad about them or told them they couldn't do it, then we'd have no progress. We'd have no art, no music, no science, no medicine, no technology, no automobiles, nothing.

One of my favorite artists is Eminem, and I can honestly say that, despite his explicit lyrics, parental advisory stickers and constant controversy, he has helped me through a lot of hard times and taught me a lot about perseverance.

Here you have a boy with no father and a mother who sometimes wasn't the best care provider who grew up in a trailer on the Eight Mile in Detroit where there were a lot of drugs and violence. He found his serenity in rapping, so he went to rap battles to finally make his way through the underground only for Dr. Dre to hear him rap. From that point on, Eminem grew and grew, becoming an award-winning rapper who gained platinum status. He even went on to become artist of the decade. Eminem is the literal definition of "started from the bottom, now we're here." He went through a lot in his life time and probably still is, but not once did he give up. He fought through everything, whether for himself or his daughters, Hailie, Whitney and Alaina.

So...if Eminem can do it, so can I. And so can you.

Now I'm not saying we're all going to grow up to be rap gods, but what I am saying is that we all have the strength to fight this war called life. We might lose battles, but that doesn't mean we're down for the count. All we have to do is get back to our feet and start again. There's always room for mistakes, we don't have to be perfect and given our human nature, I don't think that we ever will be, but with mistakes come learning opportunities. There are always going to be rewards for hard work and effort if you're willing to fight hard enough for it.

That old saying "Nobody ever said it was going to be easy, they only said it would be worth it" really has a lot to truth to it. Take a look at your life right now and think about the things you've overcome, and it can be anything. Maybe you read a book recently or maybe you went to college and got your degree. There's always going to be adversity, but you don't have to focus on only that. Any triumph, whether it's big or small, is still a triumph.

"Everybody has goals, aspirations or whatever, and everybody has been in a point in their life where nobody believed in them." -Eminem