• I was once asked in passing:
    What do you see as strength?
    A soldier fighting for his country? Or a superhero stoping a train?
    This is what I replied:

    This is what I see as strength.

    I see a little girl who was left by her mommy and daddy
    with others that wern't them
    And after all those years being alone
    She can still say she loves them.

    This is what I see as strength

    I see a young boy teased
    by his family to where it's just cruel
    his ability to love himself is gone
    and yet he can find friends that can make up for that missing love

    This is what I see as strength

    I see a teenage girl who was raped
    when she was no more than four
    She was told she could never do better
    and yet she's wearing the proud robes and holding a diploma

    This is what I see as strength

    I see a girl whose past only she knows
    She knows that she will be judged
    She feels unloved at times
    and yet she can still smile everyday

    This is what I see as strength

    I see another teenage girl who's belly is full with child
    everyone has told her to abort
    and yet she stands in the crowd eighteen years later
    looking at her future college baby

    This is what I see a strength

    I see a little girl who bettered by her cousin
    in everything she does
    I know she feels resentments at her cousin's gift
    yet she can say she still loves them

    This is what I see as strength

    I see a mother, a woman, a friend
    a grandmother, a sister, an aunt
    This one woman helps the others
    And tries to refuse anything given in return

    This is what I see as strength

    I see a man who's gentle
    his first time in marraige tore his heart
    the second now stands proud beside him
    He is able to love again

    This is what I see as strength

    I see another woman
    beaten by her now divorced husband
    Thinking that she can never be truely loved
    A person she met becomes her soulmate until the day they die

    This is what I see as strength

    I see a teenage girl
    giving up her time with her friends
    just to take care of her sister's daughter
    and not having a single qualm about it

    This is what I see as strength

    I see a teenage boy
    who was raised in the worst part of the neighborhood
    He now goes to college
    and works full-time

    That is what I see as strength

    The stranger who asked me just stared in awe:
    "how can you make so many reasons?
    So many situations and strengths at one time?
    is it something your found in a book? or the internet?

    How can you say that is what you see as strength?

    I reply with a smile on my face:
    Because my friends and my family are these people
    I am one of them myself
    and I am the only one who can tell you their story

    Because that is what I see as strength

    These people have fallen victim to society's cruelest ways
    or they have made bad decisions in their life
    yet they are able to rise from the ashes
    and begin their life anew and better

    And that is what I see as strength

    They give me hope while they give me joy
    I know these people and I have cried with most of them
    They and their stories give me strength
    So now I will ask you:

    What do you see as strength?