"Suffering is not enough. Life is both dreadful and wonderful...How can I smile when I am filled with so much sorrow? It is natural--you need to smile to your sorrow because you are more than your sorrow." 
— Thich Nhat Hanh

Each day here comes with challenges. I don't often blog about the struggles, but I assure you they exist. Sometimes I feel like I'm pushed beyond what I can handle and sometimes the things I see make me feel like nothing I do here could ever really mean anything. Defeat is a feeling that I can't admit I am very accustomed to, and its only exacerbated by the fact that I'm seeing just one town, in one country, in one part of the world. It's hard; it's really hard.

But what I'm coming to realize is that there is enough sad in the world already. When confronted with a depressing reality, sometimes we purposefully try not to react to things that would normally make us laugh or smile, almost as if to prove (to who? ourselves?) that the situation deserves it. Why? Why should we ever let something positive concede defeat to something negative when it doesn't have to?

There have been lows here, where I have felt alone, insignificant, frustrated...but there have also been highs. "Life is both dreadful and wonderful" - I love that. Let yourself feel the hard stuff, but don't ever keep yourself from feeling the good stuff. Feel for the people who are less fortunate than you, but laugh with them, too.

Appreciate everything you have, guys.

Besos