the importance of hope..

Hope. Hope is defined as "a belief in the positive outcome related to the events and circumstances in one's life." Hope has helped me more than anything else in my life. Without hope, I would be lost. Call me an eternal optimist. When my mom was ill I had hope until the end of time. I had to hope that she would fight the cancer and beat it. I remember one conversation I had with my aunt when my mom was in the hospital. We were in the waiting room, my aunt catches my gaze, and says "Megan, I don't think there is much hope left. I think we have to be realistic and realize that she is probably going to die." Taken aback and offended by the comment I replied, " How, can you say that? If we don't have hope, what else do we have? Nothing. I have to believe things will be okay, otherwise I won't be able to handle this. I have to believe for my mom's sake." And I went home that night feeling alone in the world yet empowered with hope for the better.

Now, of course I could have given up hope , but that would have been giving up on my mom. I could not possibly bear that. It's when people give up on hope that they give up period. If my mom and I didn't believe, things may have been worse. I don't know how but I know they could have been. And even when my mom was diagnosed as terminal I had hope that she would die peacefully and that when she did die I would be okay. She did die peacefully and I took her death in stride. I held onto the hope that life would go on and I would be okay, happy even without her. And because of that I am happy. Happy without her.

Now I face that infinite hope again. I shattered my ankle nine months ago and I still limp. But I have to believe that I will run and function normally again. If I don't believe that and give up, how will I ever improve? That's exactly it, I won't.

So I am going to keep on hoping for a better today, and a better tomorrow. Never settle, always strive for improvement and hope for the best.