Just turn 65, I am still around. Retired, going to take art and music lessons. When I die is not because I gave up. Just got my packout pallet yesterday from Maryland/DC. I still need one more packout from Jacksonville FL. I have way too many clothes and shoes!!! I will start with the suits and ties. Shoes will be harder to give up. The tropical shirts I keep. I have to put together this complicated art table!!! I am not giving up!!! Errr I am keeping the ties!!! Nah, I will give them to my son, I will know where to find them.

I was arrested in the aftermath of the 2009 Iranian presidential election for translating and publishing an article by John Stuart Mill on liberty, essentially labeling the ruling system an Islamic dictatorship. I was detained for 3 weeks before being sentenced to 6 months in jail. I was released on bail after one month and managed to continue my master's studies. The Ministry of Intelligence pressurized my supervisor into rejecting my thesis on two occasions, within a week of my defense session. I wrote a new thesis from scratch for a third time and managed to finish my studies. Before the incident, I used to be treated with neglect and sometimes contempt by my family for my political views and lack of faith. My resistance has bound our family together to the point that my parents now openly oppose the current regime and two of my siblings are no longer believers. I went through a lot of hardship and was on the verge of committing suicide, but didn't let the ruling dictatorship ruin my life. I would do it all over again if I could turn back the hands of time.

There have been a few times in my life when I felt like giving up but when I really thought about it I realized that giving up wouldn't make my problem go away.

Your comment about being under a long time reminded of an airboat accident i was in on the ST.Johns river near central Florida. I took an invitation from one of my craziest friends to go airboating for the day. I really enjoy fishing and riding in my outboard boat on that river so i thought what could go wrong? Well the first half hour was fun because he was showing me what tricks he could do like spinning and skif jumping in the marshes. But then he decides to show me how fast this thing went. I'll tell you at this point the boat had a 6 cylinder Lycoming race engine. There was no speedometer on the boat but i've had my boat up to 65 mph and we were going way faster that that through marsh that had sunken trees, alligators, sandbars, and whatever else could kill us. We approached a long dike with dirt piled too high to see over when three boats appear speeding at an angle toward us. The first boat crossed in front of us and the driver had this ohhh shhhiiittt! look on his face. The second boat turned directly into our path so my friend veered left toward a visible sandbar then he turned hard right trying to airbrake us. We hit the sand bar going about 40 mph and launched into the air while flipping over. My friend flew directly off the front of the boat but i was in between the front and rear seat when we hit. I felt a few ribs snap as my body hit the frame on the front seat then i kind of floated through the air and fell into a deep marsh hole. Unfortunately the boat landed on top of me. But fortunately the blade cage pinned me other wise the spinning blades would have killed me. I got pushed to the bottom. I swam hard to get free as I was going down. But my ankle was pinned to the bottom under the boat cage. I tried several ways to lift that cage while i was running out of air and wondering if my friend died. I finally decided to push as hard as i could even if I had to tear my foot off. That last push was painful but I broke free and surfaced. My friend was sitting on the sandbar and guess what he said. Wow you were under there for a long time!

My whole life feels like a lesson in not giving up.

By not giving up after I had my stroke, and lost my wife from cancer. I had my son to live for and knowing that he depended on me gave me strength to go through a big double whammy.

I think my hardest day recently was the first day I had to walk into a class full of 20 somethings as a mid-50's person, take my seat, and try to find a lab partner. It seemed so lonely and so isolating to be so much older than anyone else (including the instructor sometimes). I was dreading it and felt like nobody would want to work with me but I was shocked to find out lots of the young people DID like to partner with me and we were good working together on projects and assignments.

I made it into a job I strived towards for many years. It's a job that generally requires a degree and I haven't finished mine.

BRAVA!

I didn't.

I worked for a company fertilizing lawns for 7 years. I had around 400 customers. I was paying child support and needed extra money, so I started doing yard work for a few customers. Before I knew it, I had more customers than I could handle and was able to quit fertilizing and had my own business.

I lost a large amount of unhealthy weight and quit smoking in one year a couple of years ago. I made small changes everyday. Small changes everyday can lead to big changes very quickly it turns out.

I have lived to be 80 years old and I have no desire or intention of giving up now.

I have noticed that most humans are not nice or have good intentions . I have noticed that many are hurtful as well . I have a choice to give up on interacting , helping , even hoping for better outcome . Yet I go to work and mostly ready for a shitstorm .
The ugliness is in the daily menu . But . There is always someone that brights my night shift w their kindness , a random remark , a story they share , their worries , always at least one that makes me feel " that's worth it . Keep going ". That one I hug and hold . The rest , I ll do what's required , and keep going regardless .

This is one of the reasons I admire you...you are determined and willing to go against the odds...the results, like these flowers, will generally always be positive for you...inspiring and admirable indeed...thanks for posting such a story.. I will think of one as well later...