Persistence is an Art.

When I was in Germany, I got myself a new tattoo! I had been thinking about it for a while and I wanted to get something in Germany, just like I've been wanting to get a tattoo to represent my trip to Thailand, although I still haven't gotten around to it. I've talked about my tattoos before (you can read about my tree here and my phoenix here) and as you can see, my tattoos all have pretty deep meanings behind them. This latest one does too.

There are so many times when quitting seems like the best option, maybe even the only realistic option. But when you keep going, you realize that if you hold on, and persist just a tiny bit longer, amazing things will happen. There have been quite a few times in the last few years where I wanted to quit, where I was so close from giving up... When school got tough, I almost quit. When running didn't go like I wanted, I wanted to quit. When friendships and relationships get hard, my first instinct is to walk away.

Fresh - you can see how red it is

Anfangen is leicht, beharren eine Kunst. To begin is easy, to persist is art.

All healed!

And now? I'm graduating university in a month, because I didn't quit, I'm running my 4th half marathon in a month, because I didn't give up, I can speak German pretty damn well, because I kept going and the list goes on...
So I got this tattoo (which is a German proverb), in Germany, after the Berlin Half Marathon, as a way of telling myself, "look at all the things you've accomplished because you didn't quit."


**Also - because I know you will ask, the ribs didn't hurt as much as I thought! I found that my forearm hurt way more... Except for the feather, now that was painful!