You’ve tripped. Multiple times, perhaps, but you always get immediately back on your feet--when you’re young and innocent, at least. When ignorance has not yet let you out of its embrace and senescence has not yet given you a single glance, you clutch me in your delicate hands and refuse to let me go. I am with you when you take your first step, and I am with you when you fall. I am with you when you utter your first word, and I am with you when you give your first cry.

With time, I am held less tightly in your arms. But I am still here. I am still with you when you first hold a stranger’s hand. I am with you when you have your first fight. I am still with you when you miss your homework assignment. I am with you when you fail an exam. I am still with you when you feel heartbreak for the first time. I am with you when you learn to love again. I am still with you.

The more you see in the world, it seems, the less you see in the way of your path. You may stumble on outside opinions, and trip on people’s judgements. You may choke on your own decisions and suffocate in your own despair. But every time you stagger, I pull you right back up. Because I am still with you.

You see me when you look in your mother’s eyes; you feel me when you embrace your daughter in your arms. You see me when you finally pick up your father from the airport; you feel me when you bandage your son’s fresh wounds. You see me and feel me in every moment, because I am still with you, because you have not yet let go.

It is true I am in your every moment of joy and ecstasy--but I am also in every flash of pain and anguish. I am the soft rays of sunshine that caress your face, but I am also the scorching heat you cannot wait to leave. I am the light drizzle that tickles your body, but I am also the hurricane that can drench you to the core. I am the breeze that brings the brightest smile on your face, but I am also the tempest that rages through and leaves you empty inside. I am the reason for your every success and failure. I am the reason you have achieved so much, yet so little. I am the reason for everything about you, as long as I am with you.

Sometimes you may forget who I am, and start to let me go. But the truth is, you need me. Without me, you would never have taken your first step. Without me, you would never have stood back up after your fall. Without me, you would never have learned to find your own voice. Without me, you would never have felt the urge to grab the stranger’s hand. Without me, you would never have learned to find love again. Without me, you would never have looked your mother in the eye, never have embraced your daughter. Without me, you would never have picked up your father from the airport, and never have bandaged your son’s wounds. Because while I can be both the sunshine and the storm, I am also the rainbow after the rain--and you will never find beauty if you do not first feel pain.

Sometimes, you may forget that I can still be with you. Sometimes, you may forget that I am Hope, and without me, you will lose yourself.