Editor’s Note: This piece is a part of the series “Let’s talk.”

If there is anything I have learned in my 20 years of life, it is that hard things will come your way. Even when you don’t want them to, even when you are deserving of good karma, hard things will find their way into your life. 

I wish hard things did not have to be so hard. They make what could be something really enjoyable so much more difficult. Hard things will differ for everyone; what I consider hard is not the same thing my best friends will find hard. Some days the simplest tasks seem much more difficult than other days, and that is okay. 

Honestly, on your hardest days if getting out of bed is all you can do, I am proud of you. I am proud of you for sticking around and tackling difficult things on this mysterious and weird planet that throws weird combinations of things at us. I am proud of you each and every day for getting up and facing your hard things head on.

If you know me, you know I LOVE sleep. So for me, one of the hardest things is getting up early. Somehow, I ended up living with two people who are morning people. They get up early and start their days off early. I, on the other hand, like to stay up late and get up later in the day. This semester, much to my dislike, I have a 7:45 a.m. class. Getting up for that class is so hard for me. It’s one of my hard things. But I make it easier on myself by preparing my coffee and my outfit the night before. I ease into my morning and then head off to class, making a hard thing a bit easier to do. 

This past weekend, I participated in the Des Moines half-marathon. Walking 13.1 miles was never really something I saw myself doing, but then I became involved in Dance Marathon. I am so incredibly passionate about Dance Marathon and the wonderful things that organization supports — I could write fifteen columns on it alone. If you are interested at all, let me know! It is a fantastic organization!

So, when one of my best friends said we should do the half-marathon to raise money, I more or less jumped at the idea. Now, I am not an early morning person, so getting up at 6:30 a.m. to do this the other day was not my favorite thing. But I did it anyway. My first hard thing of the day. Then, I walked/ran 13.1 miles, which was my second hard thing. 

Around mile eight, I could feel my feet not feeling the best. I was ready to give up. But I had already walked eight miles, what could five more be? I powered through by just repeating to myself: “one more mile.” Over and over in my head, I said “one more mile.” If I could do one more mile, I could do it. Then I hit mile ten, and I was about ready to say I was gonna give up. We came out of this tunnel and a little girl was sitting there with a female guardian. She didn’t know me, but she looked at me and said “keep going Sarah.” So I kept going. 

My hard thing of the day was overcoming myself. I had to overcome my want to sleep in and my want to give up. I am really glad I did. I have a cool new medal, shirt and sticker because of it. 

Hard things are going to come your way. It is inevitable that they will. Somehow it seems like the universe is set up to be that way. But you can overcome your hard things. Even if you half overcome them, that is okay. 

I am proud of you for showing up every single day. You are doing a hard thing by just doing that. I am so so incredibly proud of you. Keep pushing through your hard things. The sunshine and rainbows will appear, we may just have to wait until tomorrow to see them.