This was a post for someone else on a different website I was on who is struggling and having a difficult life. I posted this for them but I want you all to read it as well. Many of the things I said to this person were lessons you all taught me:

There's a few things I've come to accept about life:

#1 - it's never, ever fair. I lost my father last summer to cancer, he worked at the post office for 45 years and was forced to retire because of it. He didn't get to enjoy his retirement because he was in and out of the hospital, and the doctors made the stupid mistake to 'wait and see if the chemotherapy was doing anything', which just made the cancer get worse. We lost him and it felt like the world was ending, but here I am, still living, still struggling to obtain my dreams. I refuse to give up because it was my dad's dream to have three successful boys, and I can't let him down.

#2 - Everyone suffers. This is a Buddhist teaching that really opened my eyes. You sometimes will believe that everyone else's lives are perfect while you are miserable, but you'll come to discover that everyone goes through hardships. The best way to realize this is to consider a traffic jam. You're suffering by being stuck in the middle of it and having the fears of not being able to get where you were going on time, but when you realize that everyone around you is going through the exact same thing, you'll understand people a little better. Sometimes, people will make fun of you because they're really jealous of you or actually respect you. And sometimes the best way to deal with someone like that is to laugh with them, even if they're insulting you. It's a good way to break the ice, and you'll learn not to get angry at the little things.

#3 - The media makes everything seem so horrible, but that's only because they think that we as human beings are uninterested in hearing about the good things in life. For every rape, mugging, shooting, fire, and so on you hear about on the news, at the same time someone is being charitable, adopting an animal, planting a tree, saving someone's life, giving birth to a child, volunteering, giving blood, spending time with someone special...I could write an entire list. The world isn't as bad as people make it seem.

#4 - Just be yourself. You are the only person in the world that has your characteristics, looks, traits, virtues, vices, thoughts, prayers, loves, hates, hopes, and dreams. There is noone in the world who is you, and equally, nobody should ever, ever tell you who to be. Standards are set because people think that we as humans should be clumped up into cliques and fashions, but in reality they're pretty stupid. "You have to be thin to be attractive. You have to wear a lot of make-up and you have to have these designer clothes or else men won't want you.", and so on. Listen, as a man, I could care less about what designer whatevers a woman is wearing. I want to know them for their personality, not for what fashions they follow. Often these cliques and standards are just a ploy for companies to make money. So instead of following them, just be the person you want to be.

#5 - "You're perfect the way you are, with all of your flaws and defects." This is a Zen wisdom quote that I enjoy sharing. It coincides with #4, and essentially means that every aspect of you makes up you, and no one should ever tell you to be something different than who you are. Everyone has their own unique interests, and you have every right to enjoy the things you like just as someone else has the right to enjoy something you may not like. I went through a phase where I tried to become interested in things other people liked (I tried to skateboard once, for example) because I was afraid that my own interests were 'weird'. I eventually learned that these other things I tried to follow just wasn't me, and that it's perfectly fine to enjoy what I love because I see the world differently than others. We are all unique and perfect just the way we are.

#6 - Sing once every day - this is a quote from the book series Dinotopia that I've always loved, because I interpret it to mean "enjoy the little things". Take the time every day to do something that makes you happy. Enjoy a piece of candy. Take a bubble bath. Sit in the sun and watch birds pass by. Doodle one of your characters being silly. Listen to a song you absolutely love, and then sing to it, even if you don't sing well or don't know the lyrics. One of my favorite things to do on the way to school is to sing in the car. I'm a terrible singer and sometimes I don't know what the lyrics are, but I do it anyway because it makes me happy. So enjoy the little things in life!

#7 - Set a goal, and work to achieve it. As a kid I wanted to be a paleontologist, but people told me that it was a dream I would never achieve and that there was nothing I could do with a job like that. I listened to them, and wasted a few years trying to study Education and Computer Science before discovering I could become a Geologist (which does similar work to a Paleontologist). So I realized that I let people talk me into these other jobs when really I could do what I wanted - to go explore the world, to study rock formations, to work to make the world cleaner environmentally. So I set a few goals I want to accomplish - for starters, I want to donate money to the charities out there that work to making the world a better place. I want to donate toward a variety of causes - to end world hunger, to promote environmentalism, to research in cancer and diabetes, to promote better food and livestock, to conservation of animals and nature. I want to save the world. But I have another goal I want to save up for - in 10 years, I want to take a sabbatical and drive around the US (and maybe Canada) to see as much of this country as I'd like. I want a year just to myself, to relax and to enjoy myself and say, "I struggled to get to this moment, and here I am." So what do you want to do with your life? What goals do you have in mind, no matter how small or grand they seem, set them and work to achieve them. That way, you'll say, "I'll never give up because I have this goal I want to accomplish."