My message of being relentlessly positive and active is an antidote to my natural state. The inclinations of my personality run toward the intensely negative, the lazy, the cruel. Depression, rage and inner turmoil are the “normal” state of affairs. When I hear the acceptance crowd say the often repeated phrase, “you’re fine just the way you are,” it always gives me a laugh. Really, I’m not. It takes hard work daily to push past and subdue that “all too human” side of myself and try to be something more worthy - of my family, my friends, and even life itself. The attainment of “worth.” Not people pleasing, sycophantic behavior, where other people dictate that to you - but a quiet kind of confidence that begins to grow out of trusting in one’s own choices and self-rule. There’s not a single person on planet earth for whom this struggle is “easy.” We all face battles with the lesser parts of ourselves. The key is to remember that you’re a fuckin’ fighter, and battles were made for you to win. there is not a hard time that has been invented that you cannot handle, nor any part of yourself that you cannot learn to master. The true value and worth of a person is in how hard they fight. If you’re fighting, I’m pulling for you. If you ain’t, no time like the present to jump in and start swinging. Life is good, but only if we make it so.