Of all life's lessons, it's my relationship with what it means to suffer that's transformed my reality.

Something that's learned, not unlike one's ability to read or write, an understanding that unlocks the door to fulfillment.

Nietzsche says,

to live is to suffer,

to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.

Dostoevsky says pain and suffering are always inevitable

for a large intelligence and deep heart.

The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.

Helen Keller says, although the world is full of suffering,

it's also full of the overcoming of it.

Our problem is not that we suffer.

Our problem is that we don't know how to perceive it when it inevitably arrives.

We're taught that it's synonymous with a giant street sign saying wrong way.

We're taught that the perfect life is free of its grasp.

It's why when suffering does arrive, we're so inclined to run from it.

I reference my experience as a D1 Rower often,

not because I stood out or even really because of my love for the sport. I reference it

because it is the point in my life when I learned to suffer, when I learned what I could put my

body through, my mind through, and see that like all things, discomfort simply ends. And life is

different on the other side.

That's why I talk about waking up to go to the gym in the morning when it's still dark in the middle of winter,

the practices that made me throw up, having three exams, two papers, but thinking about a 2K test.

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