Struggle Builds Character

I got a library notification.  I need to bring 6 books back before a week has passed, or they will be overdue.

Oh yeah!  I have library books!  I kinda forgot about that, since I decided not to write my paper on that topic anyway.  They've just been sitting by my bookshelf for the past 3 weeks, gathering dust... and papers... and clothes... and everything else that I keep looking at and thinking, "Okay, when I have an hour of free time, I'm going to clean that up."  Since they're at the bottom of my pile (I brought them home after my last hour of free time), it's no wonder I forgot about them - they're pretty much invisible.

So, as I was preparing for school, I took all 6 of those books, along with my scriptures (Isaiah class tonight), my notebook, my purse, my stapler, my netbook, my netbook cord, my cell phone, my mp3 player, my little writing notebook, some makeup, my checkbook and a couple other random things... but the main point of that is the 6 books... yes, I know you were DYING to know everything I carry in my messenger bag... and started off to school.

I made it about 5 steps out of the car before I heard a voice - a deep, maniacal, laughing voice - emanate from my bag.

"You have to carry me ALL the way to the library!" it cried triumphantly.  "The pain of Atlas as he held the world on his shoulders is nothing - NOTHING - compared to what you will endure as you lug all of these books to the library!"

I whimpered, and pressed on.

With every step, the messenger bag's strap dug deeper into my shoulder, and the books seemed to get heavier and heavier. It started out weighing about 106.3 lbs, but by the time I was half way across campus, it had increased to 3.7 tons.

But there, ahead, was the library!

As soon as it came into view, a thought popped into my head.

I need a man.  Somebody with about 30x my physical strength who can pick up my bag with his pinky.  I would like him to follow me around and lift/carry things for me.  I wouldn't like to date such a man, because this to me sounds servile, and with little or no personality, but I would like to have one.

And then it dawned on me.

I need servants!  It's so obvious!  My personality is not made for such menial tasks as lugging books to the library. 

It was a defining moment for myself, in which I determined I was done with hard work.  No more shall I fight for the stupid struggles of life!  My only struggle will be the attainment of power, which will allow me to have all the servants I could ever want.  They can take care of the little things in life.  In fact, they can even carry me around in a liter on their shoulders.

No longer do I need an hour of free time.  "You there," I will say to one of them, with a wave of my hand.  I won't bother to learn his name.  It is unimportant for my life or future attainment of power. "Clean up that mess."  Then I will turn to another.  "You there.  I feel as though I am wilting.  Pick me up and place me in the sunshine."

I have joked of such things before, but now it is real.  This is my true goal, the direction my life shall take.

So thank you, 6 library books that I had to carry in my bag.  Thank you for the pain and struggle you caused me.  Just as Scarlett O'Hara turned her trials into a lesson, defined the rest of her life by them ("If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill, as God is my witness I'll never be hungry again!"), this was a defining moment in my life, and my character is forever altered by it.

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