Perseverance

 

For those who may not know, electricity in Lebanon has long stood as one of the deepest wounds of corruption. Billions vanished, yet people were left with barely four hours of power in an entire day. Beyond that, families had no choice but to surrender to costly private generators — a luxury far beyond the reach of struggling students like us.

This is one of the very few photographs I still have from my years in Medical School.

My housemate took it on his old Nokia phone, teasing me as I sat studying by candlelight.

I kept the photo, not out of embarrassment, but because it became a quiet monument to perseverance.

I would light one candle at a time, carefully making each one last a little longer, stretching every flicker of light against the limits of a painfully small budget.

Today, when I look back at this image, I truly do not know how I endured those years.

But perhaps that is the nature of purpose.

When your eyes are fixed on a mission greater than comfort, hardship stops being a wall before you. It becomes the fire that tempers you, the darkness that teaches you how to carry your own light.