Life's Guarantee

Hi. I feel funny because I'm typing this post at my college computer lab. It's weird to be somewhere else, other than my home office. Anyway, I just wanted to post a poem for myself. It's a poem I've posted before, but it's my life right now. Life just isn't perfect, and people aren't either. All you can do is what YOU can do, and that's it. Maybe we should be reminded of this everyday. That we do not live in Heaven yet, I mean. People are going to do mean things to us. We're going to make mistakes. People will get sick. Your kids will have supernumerary teeth (oh, wait, that's just me). Maybe if we can let go of the fact that we are GUARANTEED to have sucky stuff happen, it won't hit us so hard when it happens (oh, wait, that's me, too). It's at times like this when a certain four-letter word is the best word I can think of to describe my existence to date. It starts with an "S," if you'd really like to know. Anyway, I'm just hangin' on to God and chocolate. That's all I can do. Here's the poem:


Life Ain't No Crystal Stair
Langston Hughes

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.