I’d been a cynical and nervous wreck for early part of my life. And I still get episodes of paralysing gloom and doom. Something I often I tell myself is “despite” all the [negative things], I will be a positive force in the world and that is something to be proud of. It is easy to be positive during good times and it is difficult to be positive in hard times, but it’s worth it _because_ it’s hard. I’ve never been a religious person, but I’ve been thinking more and more about religious allegories and how it fits this mindset.

Anyhow, there is something about the word “despite”(그럼에도) that rings my soul. So I mutter it to myself all the time.