The hardest years write the best chapters.

Looking back, some years were the hardest I've lived. Limited everything. Personal hurdles stacked on top of work ones. Days I just got through.

And yet, when I read my journal from those years, they're the pages with the most underlining.

Hard years teach in a way easy ones can't. They show you what you're made of, who stays, what truly matters when everything extra is stripped away.

You don't have to be grateful for the pain. But you can be proud of the chapter you wrote while you were in it.