Level Up

“How did you fracture your thumb?!”

“I was playing soccer, then I fell and my thumb turned the other way, then they brought me to hospital, and the x-ray show that it was fractured.”

“Wow.” I couldn’t stop staring at the thick cast around his hand and wrist.

“Cher, I have the picture of the X-Ray, wanna see?!”

“What? No! No, please keep your x-ray. I do not. I do not want to see your fracture! And please take care of yourself!”

The friend, watching with amusement nearby, quipped:

“Cher, he level up!”

Though I looked at them in great amusement at that moment, on hindsight, isn’t what the boy said true?

Everything adversity, every challenge, everything that doesn’t kill us, DOES help us to “level up”. We learn from experiences, we become stronger, more matured, more resilient. Just because we have not hit the next “level” does not mean that we are not on the way there.

Just another day when I learn from those I supposedly teach.

Easy… Until…

It is easy to think we have no anger

Until someone does something that unexpectedly makes us mad.

It is easy to think we are humble,

Until we realise we have been putting others down in our minds.

It is easy to think we have been on top of everything

Until a jolt makes us realise we are suddenly at the bottom.

It is easy to think we are happy,

Until Life comes along.

 

Nothing that drastic has happened to me, and I think I’ve always been a rather level-headed person. But I was just reflecting on how the so-called challenges we face in life, as much as we feel we could do without them, are really necessary after all. They teach us so much about our own weaknesses, our areas for improvements, our inner strengths and abilities. Most importantly, they MOULD us in a way that would have been impossible if we lived through lives in a bed of roses (without thorns).

Straight roads will never make skillful drivers, indeed.

 

PS: Remind me of this post when I meet my next challenge in life. Knowing this old friend, it won’t be too far away.

Carly’s Voice

“I think the only thing I can say is don’t give up. Your inner voice will find its way out. Mine did.”

 

Carly’s Voice is the story of an amazing girl, born with autism and other conditions which prevent her from speaking. Against all odds, she made herself heard above all her challenges and disabilities.

Someone once told me that the human will has the strength of an elephant.

People like Carly help us believe that, just a little more.