No Struggle, No Progress

Based off the quote from Frederick Douglass.

No Struggle, No Progress

Life has been hard,
a battle from my first breath,
tough lessons I didn’t want.

Pain ran rampant throughout,
leaving bruises and scars,
memories I’d rather forget.

Disappointments came,
my heart broken too many times,
but through it all, love remained.

I’ve learned through the heartache,
changed through the many tears,
acted on the lessons I was taught.

If I hadn’t struggled the way I did,
I wouldn’t be who I am today,
nothing more than a shell of a woman.

If I hadn’t experienced the pain,
I wouldn’t have learned to keep going,
or learned that true love will conquer.

I am thankful for all I’ve been through,
the lessons I learned when I didn’t want to,
and the woman I have become because of it all.