Words, good or bad, have a way of impacting and shaping us into who we are, the impact however most time has a lot to do with whom it is coming from.
There are so many words that have impacted me very much into who I'm today. But this week's nonfiction prompt took me down memory lane and dug up what my mom said to me a long time ago. It has been over ten years now, those words gave me back my power from a difficult time I was in.
I just came back from school to spend the holiday with them as I usually do. Only on this occasion, I was not my cheerful self. I had been in and out of the hospital throughout the semester, as I was very sick most of the time.
I had an underlying issue. I have been battling for a while, my immune system has become a little weak. At that point in my life, I was very frustrated, confused, lonely, and a bit lost. This issue had eaten deep into my savings and pocket money from my parents. I spent my money on medicines and visiting hospitals without any tangible improvement in my health.
The doctors said I had a chronic stomach ulcer, which makes me lose my strength most of the time, and most of the foods I was eating upset my stomach which caused me pain. all they kept on giving me was medicines to just suppress the pains and in a few days I will be back again. From all indications, there was no cure for the problem but it can only be managed.
It is not only my pocket money or savings that was suffering from these health challenges, my academic performance was at stake as well. I will be too tired most of the time to review my lecture notes which made me afraid I might fail my course if my health got worse.
On this day I began asking my mom why I had to go through such challenges at my age? Without any single solution insights. She looked at me and said, " she was sorry for everything I was going through". It felt like I needed her apology even though my problem wasn't a result of her fault but it was a bit of relief to know that she could feel my pains, she continued by saying
in life, challenges will always come in different forms in our lives and we have two choices; stand strong and fight till we overcome or give up and let such challenges overcome us.
She said that she knew I have been trying to be strong 💪 for a while now but she needed me to just hang in there while we continue to sort for solutions to my health challenges.
Her words full of love gave me so much strength, hope, faith and courage to continue fighting for my health and believing one day I will be fine. A year later as I was listening to a particular television program a man talked about an ulcer remedy and I was just fortunate to walk in at the right time to hear him say that. Up till today I'm still glad I stumbled on the program.
I followed his instructions and a few months later, my stomach pains were gone. Just like a play. I regained my health. Not only this, my school results came out in flying colors as I managed to use every bit of strength in me to study hard.
From that day I held on to my mom's words whenever I faced any difficulty in the course of my life. I knew if I don't give up as long as I'm still breathing I'm most likely going to win.
This made me believe more in myself, and become stronger. I do not only trust the process of my path to success but I learn to enjoy every bit of my life journey either good or bad.
I'm very grateful to my mom for being there for me with those powerful and encouraging words at that particular point in my life. It was one hell of a time but I came out stronger and better.