Written by: Dhiandra Sekar Taji, Social Media Admin intern at Project Child Indonesia
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the words “staying alive”? Is it a famous The Bee Gees song that was released in 1977? Or John Travolta’s stunning performance in the “Saturday Night Fever” movie when he sang “Staying Alive”? Well, if you say so, you’re not totally wrong because it’s true that in 1977 The Bee Gees released a mega hit called “Staying Alive”, and at the same year, John Travolta sang that song in the “Saturday Night Fever” movie. But, right now we’re not talking about The Bee Gees’s mega hit or John Travolta’s stunning performance; rather, we are talking about one of the biggest goals that we’ve made this year, which is staying alive.
Maybe some of you are wondering why staying alive is such an achievement, or you think that staying alive is so easy; you just have to live the day and enjoy your life and maybe cry if you get into problems while doing so.
But for some people, staying alive is such an important achievement; surviving in this merciless world may feel like a challenging game. You spend hours upon hours comparing yourself to others. It’s a never-ending competition that you have between you and others. And the only thing that you get as a result of doing that is pain. The pain that causes negativity towards your mind. You will think that you’re not as good as them and you will think that you’re a useless person.
Nonetheless, you have to remember that every person has their own pace. Some of them are privileged enough to get to ride an airplane the moment they were born. Some aren’t as lucky as them and have to crawl to get to where they are right now. Then again, everyone does have their own timeline and pace in achieving or reaching to where they wanna be. Even those in airplanes can experience turbulence.
This year might be hard for many people. This year may have knocked you down, leaving you gasping for air, and wishing for the strength to carry on with your life. As you try to stay still another minute, another day, or another month, your heart may have grown heavy and your soul may feel exhausted. If you keep blaming yourself for not accomplishing your wildest dream, you have to realize that you’ve already accomplished the most important breakthrough: surviving an unbearable pain.
As the sun sets on a heartbreaking year and you reflect on the life you left behind, I hope you remember that you’ve achieved the biggest victory in your life: living when every breath hurts, loving while every piece of your heart hurts, and surviving while everything is going wrong.
If staying alive is your biggest achievement that you accomplish this year, I just want to say that I am so proud of you. I am so proud of you for putting yourself first. I am so proud of you because you keep going after everything you’ve been through. I am so proud of you and you deserve all the love and wonderful things in this world.
