Don’t.

Things turn around. They do.

This is my last week at work before our show goes on hiatus and, as always, I find myself remembering.

Remembering where I was one week before I got this job two years ago. Unable to get a job in the business I had spent over 20 years working in. Unable to get hired at Macy’s department store. Unable to get rid of the used clothing I was trying to sell for cash. Unable to fill my daughter’s Easter basket with anything other than cheap candy and eggs.

I couldn’t pay my rent, health insurance, car loan and on and on.

I had pneumonia. I had a child depending on me. I had just about lost all hope.

Just about.

But that child depending on me believed in me. She said it to me every day in many ways. Through words, drawings, hugs and sometimes just a look. And sometimes… that’s all we need.

So, it got me thinking about all the people out there struggling to hold on to a career, a dream, a goal, a roof over their head…

I believe in you.

If you’ve lost hope, borrow mine. If you’ve given up, read my journey. If you’ve fallen into fear, keep showing up for life and wait. Just wait.

Because things turn around. And, like me, you will look back at this time and find you are grateful for it. You won’t want to relive it. No, not at all. But you will find you are a better person for it. Stronger, wiser, humbler.

I am a student of life lessons. I try and show up for class every day, take notes, do my homework, study and pass along to a fellow student anything I might have learned.

Writing is how I choose to do that. I am not the best writer. I am not the smartest or most poetic writer. I have awful spelling and don’t follow sentence structure. But, for as long as I can remember, it’s how I’ve been able to express myself. Express my life lessons.

For today I have a job. I can pay my rent. I can put food on the table. I can fill my daughter’s Easter basket with a little something extra.

I also know that life will turn around again. It has to. It will have bumps and challenges and struggles. And I will take my seat in class and do my best to learn.

And share.

Hold on. Show up. Believe in what you feel you are meant to do. Be kind. And when you are on the other side of it… remember. Remember all of it.

And pass your story along.

(this column was originally posted April 3, 2013)