Squeezing Optimism and Hard Work

There was a book that influenced my life deeply since I was in High School. It was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. From one of the pages of this book I found these beautifully crafted lines, “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye” (68). Simply told and undeniably true, the author’s fable has extraordinarily inspired his vast readers. Having been bombarded with difficult, painful, and frustrating situations in life, I never stopped standing up whenever I fall down. And this is also my secret, in fact my philosophy too, that keeps me standing still amidst adversities and misfortunes I’ve been going through.

To be precise, I have my own way of dealing and resolving specific problems in my life: optimistic hard work. Being optimistic does not only denote positive thinking. It rather also connotes man’s will power to go beyond the ordinary objects he discovers without giving way to disappointments and dissatisfactions to rule over him. There is more to life than just being wedged in one point in life grieving over problems in life. Man has to swim into the abyss of understanding and thereby realizing some possible solutions to free himself from the burden of affliction and pain.

Like all the people in this beautiful yet challenging humanity, I have my own share of low moments in life too. During childhood years, I dreamed of becoming a pilot but I ended up training myself to be a fisherman. I was forced to do fishing at a young age because I had no choice but to earn money to pay my financial obligations in school. At that time all I knew was no more than the methods how to catch fish. I had to wake up in the early hours of the morning preparing not for school but preparing myself to go fishing. After school, I envied the other kids playing in the neighborhood because I couldn’t join them. I had to go fishing again. For how many years that was my routine. It seemed I never enjoyed my childhood. Again, all I knew was the methods how to catch fish until one morning I was caught up with an unexpected rainstorm and terrifying waves while fishing. My boat was badly wrecked, broken down into pieces. I was alone. I had to swim. I was tired and hopeless. I fell into deep sleep. I didn’t know what happened next.

I could have saved my life alone if I only knew that there was more to life than just learning how to fish. I should have realized the unforeseeable possibilities while fishing. Thanks to that benevolent fellow fisherman who saved me while I was floating, embracing debris from my boat. I could have ended my life at that instant because I let negativity hold close to me. I never thought of any solution or ways of any sort to save my own life. The Little Prince taught me that “what is essential is invisible to the eye.” I should have realized that my one and only life is far more important than fishing. However, it never stopped me going again and again to the ocean. It was a horror man would not dream of to come, but for me, it opened the door to new learning and method: optimism plus hard work.

On the other page of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, it is said that “the desert is beautiful…What makes it beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well” (73). Truly, it is indeed rewarding for a journeyer, being in the middle of the desert, to find a well to quench his longing for an oasis of sweet waters. However, he has to go through a painful or even fearful journey first before he reaches that oasis. And this painstakingly complicated voyage is equal to hard work. Nobody in this world could reach the haven of fortunes and successes in life without working hard towards it.

Life is also like a desert. Sometimes, if not most of the times, when people face the odds of life, they would describe life as meaningless, dry, or no life at all. But if all individuals follow the process called optimistic hard work, it would be very easy for them to be directed to the well. Hard work conquers human frailty and vise. It solves the riddles of life. It has the way to success. Successful individuals enjoy their carrier now because they go beyond every single hindrance that blocks their way. And the key is hard work.

Going back to that horrifying nightmare I shared above, and with all my sincerest expression of self-humiliation, I accept I wasn’t able to manage with that unexpected pressure even if it required me to choose between life and death. Nonetheless, I judge it now as a powerfully stunning account of living and dying, a true story that brings with it a real teaching of life. Yes, a teaching of life! I feel greatly indebted to my savior, my fellow fisherman, because he gave me new life, new beginning, a fresh start to actualize my newly-found insights. And one of the greatest insights I got hold of with that event is the ability to work harder when face-to-faced with unpredicted pressures and demands.

On the other side of the coin, there have been fortunate individuals who have solved their problems without much effort. For them, hard work may not be the only essential way to solve their problem. However, for the common folks in the Philippines, hard work has been their tool alleviating their socio-economic condition. For some, they work hard maintaining relationship, that is, keeping friends and loved ones around them always so that in times of difficult situations, they can lend their hands to one another.

While neither hard work alone nor anything else may be able to guarantee solution to a specific problem, hard work is often essential for it. It is important to work hard, and when hard work is coined with optimism, it surely results to successful problem solving. It is said in Daniel June’s essay entitled “Hard work,” “…Try so hard that it becomes easy, and accept the best things as the best person to receive them...” This means that every success, every affirmation that life is beautiful, and every proclamation that life is not a burden, stem from optimistic hard work.

It took me a long time to finally find the process of resolving difficult situations in my life. But nevertheless, life is just so beautiful. There may be other ways which I haven’t discovered yet but I am confident that optimistic hard work helps me a lot in every aspect of my existence. This process, though, requires me to be bold, to assert, to commit. After all, problems in human life are inevitable. Some I may be able to solve. Others may seem unsolvable at this moment but I’m positive I will overcome them in time.