Growing up, my group of friends, we all had our fair share of struggles. Difficulties. Parents. Friends. We didn’t know how to support each other. Share. Verbalize. Encourage. We did the best we could with what we had. My parents, they just came from Korea. They didn’t know what they didn’t know. They did their best with what they knew. I’ve grown to accept, embrace and even be proud of them for that. But that kind of perspective is definitely hard to have, while you’re going through it and just trying to make sense of why things are so “unfair”. Why everything has to be a struggle. Why the world seems like it’s not on your side.
In those depths, when you just want to be understood, someone to have compassion or just even acknowledge what you’re going through. It just seems like there’s not enough compassion or understanding or at least in way that’s satisfying or can be said to relieve you of all the burden.
We all had our own difficulties, trying to make sense of the world. Trying to find our place. Trying to find our voice. Trying to find acceptance and understanding. How can two drowning swimmers save each other? But the path of difficulty, resentment, loneliness, victimization is a path that ends in grace, love and compassion. And what others couldn’t be for you, you can be for others because that path is difficult, painful and lonely and not everyone wants to go down it.