Real Or Not Real

Jennifer Lawrence's character Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games movie trilogy once said, ~My spirit. This is a new thought. I’m not sure exactly what it means, but it suggests I’m a fighter. In a sort of brave way. It’s not as if I’m never friendly. Okay, maybe I don’t go around loving everybody I meet, maybe my smiles are hard to come by, but I do care for some people.~ If you think about it, life can oftentimes feel like being a participant in the Hunger Games where you're forced to constantly engage in a fight to the death tournament of sorts. For it can be a mentally, physically, emotionally, and not to mention spiritually exhausting situation indeed to in all intents and purposes stay alive as each one of us fight our way through obstacles of brutal harsh realities of the world for our own survival. Essentially, its a repetitive process where it certainly pushes any individual to the brink of insanity.

Let me ask you this question regarding the Hunger Games that is life, do you find or have you found yourself hoping that someone else takes your place volunteering himself/herself as tribute like Katniss did with her younger sister Prim. You see, it’s those certain situations in life you are knowingly going to face that may very well cause death-like pain in every sense of the word? I think it's safe to say we all have and no matter how much we try to avoid it we end up enduring painful scars as a reminder of how one narrowly survived the metaphorical battle(s) being faced. Thinking about it further, the obstacles whatever they may be can at times feel absolutely relentless with not any visibly clear or easy path to take. It's at that point you wonder/question whether or not you have allies, if any at all, who actually have your back when it looks like you're incredibly outnumbered or the odds are overwhelmingly against you.

As I said before, the Hunger Games that is life is a repetitive process where it certainly pushes any individual to the brink of insanity. In a sense, we can find ourselves mentally and emotionally capturing the way Josh Hutcherson's character did by President Snow in Catching Fire. In the movie Peeta was brainwashed into thinking Katniss was the enemy and nearly choked her to death after being rescued, which is how life can unfortunately do many of us. The brutality of life can have any person thinking our friends/allies are the enemy and messing with our minds so much so, it causes us to doubt our self worth. Sadly, it can very well lead us to lash out in such a way that we want to strangle the same people who have encouraged/supported us since the very beginning. What it primarily comes down to is having those same people who love/care about us continually remind us that we don't have to go through this alone.

Without a doubt, within the brutality of life inspiration can be found in order to keep moving forward similar to that of all 13 Districts uniting and finding inspiration by way of Katniss in defeating President Snow. For the most part, every person can think of someone or quite possibly a group of people who won't let/allow you to give up even if you've somehow given up on yourself. True, it can either take being kicked in the butt or a inspiring speech to get you motivated in getting up, dusting yourself off, and finding that inner reserve strength to conquer the remaining obstacle with every ounce of mental/physical/emotional/spiritual strength you have. Of course, some people are motivated by financial gain whereas a number of people have their child/kids/family to motivate them while others have God and his inspiring word within the bible. Let me tell you something, whatever motivates you to keep going don't give up and whatever target you're aiming straight for within your crosshairs make sure you don't miss.

In retrospect, when it comes to the Hunger Games that is life it's okay to be afraid concerning the uncertainty of it all because it shows you're human. However, with fear comes excitement knowing full well every time you wake up in the morning you survived and made it out alive with hopefully most of your sanity intact. Granted, you feel tired, as well as beaten down from the previous day and that is to be expected. Let me tell you something, unlike the movie Hunger Games that has claimed countless victims like Finnick and Rue who fought honorably till the end, you're still fighting in real life so don't give up. For the question can be asked, how much fight do you still have in you? Ultimately, it's all about playing the game with the right strategy, which to be perfectly honest is to have no strategy whatsoever. In other words, go with flow and see where it takes you but be smart about it. In the end, when you do finally win in key aspects of life don't lose that fighting spirit so you don't end up asking yourself as you look back from where you started to where you are now if what you have earned/fought for is real or not real.