what it means to live life with hope

i'm currently engaged in a conversation with a friend of mine, and it's turning out to be predictably strange. not to say that he's strange, or that i don't like talking to him. but it serves as the springboard for this post today.

he has many pent-up frustrations about life, mainly about underachievement in academic and romantic fields. it's interesting how he approaches both in the same manner - he has goals and targets that he would love to achieve, yet he looks at his present scenario and, instead of spurring himself to work harder or to be bolder, he begins to contemplate the unfortunate eventuality of his failure in achieving those goals, and ridicules his own targets.

it's pretty disappointing whenever i talk to him. i keep trying to persuade him that (1) he's not as bad as he makes himself out to be, and he has the potential to achieve, and (2) even if he doesn't achieve what he set out to do, he may still achieve or learn something worthy of respect and can still go on to be successful in life. sadly, he finds it hard to give himself hope.

perhaps it's the pain of past defeat, the lack of victories, that has given him this perception. i wish i could somehow tell him that working hard doesn't necessitate success - sometimes all you need is to wait for everything to fall into place. it's not enough to strive incessantly and end up saying if only i'd done something else - sometimes you just need to accept that it wasn't the right way of doing things, and that the time may not have been right. but above all, i believe prayer is the key. prayer makes all things possible, i can personally attest to that from experience.

so now all that's left is to wait for the time to be right, pray without ceasing, and strike when the iron is hot. those steps in themselves are a skill to be mastered, but surely they can be.

living life with hope is like that. to never say die, to never allow yourself to fail until there is no way out. just like the true fulham fan who never gives up. even when you're second from bottom playing the team in fifth, you never lose hope. and as you pray fervently, all things are possible. even beating formidable everton. even winning 3 matches in a row. even defying relegation. we can, and we will. VAMOS!!! muahaha