People can stand right next to you and not even realize how much pain you are in. They can stand right next to you and not realize that it took everything you had to physically get out of bed that morning. They have no clue how bad it hurts to take one step after another, to climb stairs, or to go through the daily motions of life.

If you have not gone through the pain, suffering, and agony that some people have gone through, you would not understand what it feels like and you would not understand how difficult it is at times to just get through simple things. You would have no clue what it feels like to take one step after another, pain shooting through your feet, agony stabbing at your legs, and pain so intense and aching that you just want to stop walking and fall over.

If you've never lived it, you can't judge it. If you've never walked through it, you don't know it. If you've never dealt with it, you wouldn't understand it. And most importantly, until you've experienced it, you can't speak of it.

Put yourself in the shoes of someone who deals with pain every single day of their life. Whether it is back pain, knee pain, leg pain, feet pain, or head pain. Whether it is emotional or physical pain. Regardless of what it is, unless you've walked a mile in their shoes, or even three feet in their shoes, you have no clue what it feels like. So don't stop someone and say to them, "I know how you feel" unless you really do.

When that morning hits you one day in your life that you wake up, feel the pain, agony, and suffering in your entire body, struggle to just roll out of bed, suffer through the long painful walk to the bathroom, suffer through lifting your legs up to get into the shower, and question whether you can even walk down your driveway to get into the car, then you may have a clue what it feels like.

Every day is a painful struggle - the aches, the suffering, the agony, the chronic throbbing in your legs, feet, back, knees, and other body parts that make it almost impossible on some days to deal with. It makes it nearly impossible to roll out of bed, struggle across the house, get through a shower, lift your legs up enough to get your pants on, and then you stop. You stare at the wall. You feel the aches creeping through your bones. And you look yourself in the mirror. You ask yourself if you can even make it through another day.

People who aren't in poor health have no clue what it's like. They get a headache, and they think the world is coming to an end. They get a broken fingernail, and they think that the apocalypse is going to occur any moment now. They think that if they've bent a finger the wrong way, and feel an ache, a pain, or the suffering for a moment's time, their world is crashing down. And they don't realize they have no clue what real pain is like. None whatsoever.

During the summer, the days are somewhat easier. Unless of course, you wake up to find the temperature climbing upwards of 80 degrees. And then it gets painful. It gets difficult. It gets rough. And you don't know how you'll make it through a 12-14 hour day. But put the weather in the opposite temperate level. Wake up and feel the snow on the ground. Feel the cold in the air. And see it's 20 below zero. You're lucky if you can even walk down your sidewalk without falling over and not wanting to get up.

It's one of the most difficult things to imagine. Walking one step at a time. Feeling the throbbing in your feet. Feeling the aching in your bones. Wondering when you just won't be able to do it anymore. Questioning when the day will come that you wake up, attempt to roll out of bed, and with the sick realization, come to accept the fact that you can't.

That day might very well happen to you. It might happen to someone you love. It may have already happened to someone you know. And until you've been in their shoes, experienced their life, or have experienced their pain, you really don't know what it feels like.

If you haven't had to go to the store and buy shoes three sizes bigger than you used to wear from one year to the next, you have no clue what it's like. If you haven't walked around in shorts, knowing people are staring at your legs and feet, wondering what's wrong with you, you have no clue what it's like. If you haven't had to go shopping for bigger pants just so your legs can fit through them, you have no idea what it feels like. Unless you've walked a mile or three feet in those shoes and worn those pants, you just wouldn't get it.

Imagine you wake up one day, and you realize that your shoes don't fit. Imagine your pants don't fit. You haven't gotten fat. You haven't put on weight. You just take a look at your legs and realize that something is wrong. You go to the doctors. You get shots. You get needles poked in your feet. You have to buy bigger shoes. You have to buy bigger shorts. You can't even find socks that fit you. And the aches continue. The pain continues. The agony continues. And you suffer.

Unless you've walked in those shoes, you can't say that you know what it's like. Unless you've worn those pants, you can't say that you understand what it feels like. Unless you've been stared at, had jokes made about you, and have overheard sarcastic comments, you just wouldn't understand.

People suffer every single day. One might be standing right next to you as you are reading this. One of those people might have walked right by you. Another one might be sitting at the table with you during lunch. One might be your coworker. Another one of the people suffering agony, aches, and pain like this may be someone you love. It might be someone in your family. Or maybe, it just might be you.

Imagine if this story were about you. The person being written about is you. Wearing bigger shoes. Not finding pants that fit. Not knowing if you can find a new pair of socks when your others rip. Wondering how many pants sizes you have to go up when you go shopping. You wonder when the next kid is going to point at your legs and ask you why they are so big, or when someone is going to look at you, catch you staring at them, and glance away embarrassed, because they realize they've just gotten caught.

The pain is real. The suffering is real. The agony is real. The aches and pains are real. The struggles are real. And unless you've walked a mile in someone's shoes that experiences and battles it every day, you cannot say you understand. You cannot say that you know what it feels like. You cannot say that you've been through it.

It's a pain level that you will never understand unless you live it. It is an agony level that you will never experience unless you walk through it. It is a life that you will never live unless you live in it. And the reason that this story can be written about from such a perspective is because it is an experience known all too well, an experience that hits close to home. It's lived. It's walked through. And it's struggled with every day.

Mine.