One Foot in Front of the Other

This has been my mantra at several difficult times in my life. When I was a freshman in college, my girlfriend was several states away, I was surrounded by super-smart people, and I was down-in-the-dumps lonely. On top of that, I lost my mind and took German so that I could impress my girlfriend’s mom. That was a disaster, and for the first time in my life, I was failing a class. My professor asked me to come to his office, and said, “You’re the only person in class that didn’t take German in high school. I know you’re trying, but you should really drop the class.” I was shocked. Drop the class? Could I do that? Wasn’t that like giving up?

I was a little young, but I wasn’t an idiot. I dropped the class. 

I was still pretty down, but I kept moving ahead. Over time, things got better. My other classes were nowhere near as hard. And without German, I had some more time to study. I got a bad haircut, but I didn’t crumble. I adjusted. 

That whole incident taught me something about persistence. I’ve used the phrase “one foot in front of the other” to get through a bunch of hard times: A divorce. Loss of a job. Getting dumped. All painful, but somehow the pure movement itself got me through. 

Now I’m leaving a job I’ve actually been pretty good at in order to start a new phase of my life. Nobody’s forcing me, yet I feel some familiar fear. But my strategy is coming back. One step at a time. One foot in front of the other. I’ll get through this.