HOPE: I JUST HAVE TO EMBRACE THE STRUGGLE

Summer. 10th grade. Hope was hard to find. 

Darkness dominated. Amid this torment, competition is where I found the light. 

My Uncles and I were walking towards Balboa Park to hoop when we ran into Mario. A neighborhood friend. We greeted each other with the usual trash talk among Competitors. “Why you got that rock in your hand? You gets no buckets!” 

“What?! You still can’t guard me though!” Good times. 

Mario held a Rubik’s Cube. Shuffled it between his words. Fascinated, I inquired, “Have you done it yet, bro?” 

“Not yet. Just one side.” Mario looked up with a smug smirk, “But, you’ll never be able to do it though.” 

Solving the Rubik’s Cube was now my only focus. “Alright, I got you.” I thought.

Dad bought me one the next day. I had it. Studied it. The phases, the algorithms, the movements. Losing myself in the process of discovery. If I wasn’t studying the algorithms, I was in the room struggling to get one step closer to solving it.

I locked in and unlocked it. By the end of the week, the Rubik’s cube was resolved. 

Somewhere in the process, my focus shifted from proving Mario wrong to finding hope. Mario’s comments, “You’ll never be able to do it though,” echoed the hopelessness I felt about my life. But, his sentiments were unacceptable to my core. 

This belief tormented and motivated me. “If I am good enough, why am I always losing?” But, “I am not a loser. I don’t care what it looks like. I will win.” 

The Rubik’s Cube was the arena for me to reconcile this tension. Every step closer to the resolution was a step further away from despair. 

“Can I conquer the unconquerable?” I never knew anyone who solved it. “Of course. But, even if I can’t, why not try?” The struggle strengthened me. Revealing hidden hope in my heart. Subconsciously, the Rubik’s Cube was my life. If I could solve the cube, I could win in life. 

Life is a struggle. But, this is the hope. The struggle is the hope. Why? Because the presence of a struggle signifies life. Nothing dead struggles. 

There is always hope. I just have to embrace the struggle. 

By Christian John Bradley