Tonight, my family and I had a student from Italy eat dinner with us. Throughout the night, we were trading stories from our elementary and high school years until the conversation turned towards our families. "A" was just laid off from an internship because they did not need her anymore. Obviously she was upset, but she told us a story that always reminds her to never give up.
Her grand father's brother was captured by Germans and put into a concentration camp during WWII - (he was in his 30's). Upon entering the camp, you had to prove that your were strong... useful or you would be killed. He began to panic because he didn't know what his abilities were. As the soldiers reached his spot in the line, his mind blanked.
"What can you do?" the soldier asked.
"I can sew." He couldn't sew. The soldier looked at him, nodded, and gave him a list and number of uniforms that needed to be sewed by the next day. If the order was not completed, he would be deemed as a waste of space and killed.
He sat in a room with the order, knowing that his life depended on his notability to sew. Instead of giving up, he asked for a "sample uniform" so he could see what the finished product should look like. When he was alone, he took apart the finished uniform to see how it was all sewn together. Through that, he taught himself how to sew and finished the order.
This is where she paused in her story, looked at all of us and said, "he has taught me that in any situation, there is always hope, always a way out."
He survived the concentration camp. "A" told us of the day that he was rescued. His eyesight was very bad from sewing day after day. On the day that he was rescued, he heard a loud sound and looked out his window. He could tell that a tank was coming but he could not tell if it was a German tank or American tank. But he ran to it as quick as he could and thought, "I'm either running towards my freedom, or running towards my death." But he ran, and was saved.
(I can't thank "A" enough for telling this wonderful story, and it was amazing to meet and get to know her tonight!)
I took two lessons from this amazing story.
1. NEVER GIVE UP - THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE - no matter where we are in our journeys, no matter the hole that we're in, or the mountain that we're on top of, there is always hope. Even when we're in the blackest night, never give up... the sun will shine again. The clouds will clear. The dust will go.
2. RUN WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT - we can't win our battles by sleeping through them. We have to get up and fight! Our paths in this life can be scary as hell... filled with doubt, mess ups, regrets... but we need to run. "The only difference between life and dying is one is trying". We need to try.
I hope this story is encouraging to you as much as it was to me. Please remember that we are not fighting our battles alone. Don't be afraid to ask for help - we're not meant to go through life alone. And don't be discouraged with your battles. The fact that your are fighting shows that you are still living, that there's still hope, THAT THIS IS NOT THE END.
Hang in there my friends.
|-/
-Millie
Her grand father's brother was captured by Germans and put into a concentration camp during WWII - (he was in his 30's). Upon entering the camp, you had to prove that your were strong... useful or you would be killed. He began to panic because he didn't know what his abilities were. As the soldiers reached his spot in the line, his mind blanked.
"What can you do?" the soldier asked.
"I can sew." He couldn't sew. The soldier looked at him, nodded, and gave him a list and number of uniforms that needed to be sewed by the next day. If the order was not completed, he would be deemed as a waste of space and killed.
He sat in a room with the order, knowing that his life depended on his notability to sew. Instead of giving up, he asked for a "sample uniform" so he could see what the finished product should look like. When he was alone, he took apart the finished uniform to see how it was all sewn together. Through that, he taught himself how to sew and finished the order.
This is where she paused in her story, looked at all of us and said, "he has taught me that in any situation, there is always hope, always a way out."
He survived the concentration camp. "A" told us of the day that he was rescued. His eyesight was very bad from sewing day after day. On the day that he was rescued, he heard a loud sound and looked out his window. He could tell that a tank was coming but he could not tell if it was a German tank or American tank. But he ran to it as quick as he could and thought, "I'm either running towards my freedom, or running towards my death." But he ran, and was saved.
(I can't thank "A" enough for telling this wonderful story, and it was amazing to meet and get to know her tonight!)
I took two lessons from this amazing story.
1. NEVER GIVE UP - THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE - no matter where we are in our journeys, no matter the hole that we're in, or the mountain that we're on top of, there is always hope. Even when we're in the blackest night, never give up... the sun will shine again. The clouds will clear. The dust will go.
2. RUN WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT - we can't win our battles by sleeping through them. We have to get up and fight! Our paths in this life can be scary as hell... filled with doubt, mess ups, regrets... but we need to run. "The only difference between life and dying is one is trying". We need to try.
I hope this story is encouraging to you as much as it was to me. Please remember that we are not fighting our battles alone. Don't be afraid to ask for help - we're not meant to go through life alone. And don't be discouraged with your battles. The fact that your are fighting shows that you are still living, that there's still hope, THAT THIS IS NOT THE END.
Hang in there my friends.
|-/
-Millie