Just Gettin' By

"[M]aybe the truth is there's a little bit of loser in all of us, ya know? Being happy isn't having everything in your life be perfect. Maybe it's about stringing together all the little things like wearing these pants or getting to a new level of Dragon's Lair -- making those count for more than the bad stuff. Maybe we just get through it ... and that's all we can ask for."

More than one person recently told me that one of the things they admire most about me is my ability to get through things. (Which is not to say that I have had tons of really awful things to go through. As a friend told me when I said I just wished life were easy for once, "Your life has not always been hard," which is more than legit.)

I guess it's true, though. I do always just get through things. I am not the sort of person that breaks down and cries and recovers only after copious amounts of ice cream (though ice cream does always help).

Even when I feel like I am falling apart, when I feel unmoored and unsure and on edge, I am still put together, though it may take more caffeine and more sleep (the same thing?) to get there. And I may grind my teeth into oblivion.

I am the sort of person who does whatever's gotta get done with the help of lots of coffee and collapses afterward, hopefully too tired to think. Hopefully.

But I wonder if I lose something in that "just get through it" attitude. Because just getting through it isn't really ever enough, is it?