Matt W Cook

The day has come at last. I had lost hope. You’d have to admit that you were starting to doubt we’d be able to overcome this obstacle. Remember when we faced it the first time? How terrifying it was? how utterly hopeless it seemed. I feel like I only tried to overcome it out of duty–I never expected that we’d be able to get over it.

We did, of course. It took ages, it seemed, but we finally beat it. To be honest, though, I felt that things worked out because of luck, rather than our good choices. It didn’t matter at the time, I was just glad it was gone.

And then we faced it again. I suppose we always knew it would come back on us. And because I attributed our original victory to luck, I had even less hope when it came again. Strange, isn’t it? We faced this issue before and won, and because we won, I had less hope when it came again?

I hardly bothered to try and overcome it. I just let it sit there, languishing. I failed to overcome mostly because I rarely bothered to try.

But I couldn’t leave it forever. It’s in my nature to strive. And so, one day when I had no expectation of victory, I noticed that I was near victory.

My heart started pounding. I brought my full attention to the problem. Could it be? I threw my skill against it, and I found that my skill was sufficient. More than sufficient, even. I conquered. With style, even. My heart leapt for joy. Level 323 of Candy Crush was beaten. And now I am the ubermensch. And you owe me a beer.

Have an overcoming eighth day, Ruth. I’ll say Hey again tomorrow.