I try. Sometimes I stumble and fall. I get up, brush away the tiny pebbles that have painfully lodged themselves in my elbow and smooth out the wrinkles in my pants. I try again. I fall once again. It isn’t for lack of trying. I try . . . I really do. Sometimes, I just can’t do it — whatever the “it” may happen to be.

Do I give up? I admit to my weaknesses. Most times, I don’t give up. That’s the beauty of perseverance. You don’t give up.

If I tell myself not to give up, to keep pushing forward, to try try try, to give it my all and then some — it gives me life. It gives me motivation. It gives me satisfaction to know that I’m not a quitter.

Never, never, never give up.