Anonymous

Photography by Jalencia Pouge

If you’re reading this, I want you to pause for a second and catch your breath. 

You've survived moments that previously you believed would kill you. You've braved the storm and kept on going, even when your legs shook, and your voice quaked. That in itself is evidence of strength.

Life is never nice. There are times when it feels like the world is taking too much out of you, like it's one step away from falling apart. And yet, even when all of that is going on, you're here. You're still fighting. And that means more than you'll ever know.

You don't have to be always strong, yet strength is not a loud sound. It is waking up off the bed with a heart so heavy at times. It's choosing not to give up when you're too tired. You are strong in your kindness, your empathy, your ability to keep on holding on even when that hope is quiet and burning.

Whatever you're walking through, it doesn't make you. You are bigger than your pain, bigger than your past, bigger than what other people couldn't see in you. You are growing, evolving, becoming. And even when the days make you feel like you're stuck, something inside of you is evolving. Healing isn't always loud either. Sometimes it's just the decision to move forward, one breath at a time.

You're not alone. I see you. I'm rooting for you. And I think, deeply, that you have something incredible to bring to this world just by being precisely who you are.

Just keep going. You've already made it this far and there's so much more to come that's worth sticking around for.

Anonymous, University of South Carolina

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