Amina F.

Photography by Nia Jones

If you're reading this, you have gotten through the worst of your days to be here. And that alone is something worth celebrating.

I’m sitting here today writing this for anyone who needs a reminder: you made it this far and no one can take that from you, so don’t take it away from yourself.

It is so easy for us to diminish our daily accomplishments when we’ve convinced ourselves that they are not big enough victories. In actuality, it’s a varying spectrum. Sometimes, it is managing to hit every checkbox on a to do list. And other times just waking up and making it out of bed is a victory. 

Ultimately, I believe victory is taking care of ourselves in the face of everything that seems to be standing in the way.

I sit here writing this letter as just as much of a reminder to myself as to anyone else reading this, we are worth the good days and are strong enough for seeing through the bad ones.

I reflect on the days that in theory, I believed I never should’ve gotten through, and today I am met with the fact that I did survive. Each of us will have many different tales of days that felt impossible, and I want for us to remember them. While memories are often still painful, and it may still feel like we could never withstand the same circumstances again, it is nothing short of miraculous that our minds and bodies persevered then and continue to do so.

Hold on to such miracles on the heaviest of days.

Just making it through 24 hours is sometimes enough. Perhaps it is these very days, in which we feel we have accomplished nothing, that we set the stepping stones for our biggest successes to come. May we all give ourselves some grace as we navigate through life and its tumultuous waters.

Amina F., Virginia Commonwealth University

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