Soldiering On

[photo credit: flickr user Andre Rodrigues]

I must’ve argued with myself a dozen or so times about whether I should write this post. I loathe writing about myself.

But this post is really for you. See, I understand what a blog reader feels when he or she hasn’t seen a new post at a favorite blog for a long time. You think, “Are they all right? Is everything OK? Has the blog been abandoned? Will there be new posts?”

Many of you have emailed me such questions, and I’ve written back. But then, I thought I’d write here as well for those readers who had the same questions but did not email.

Short answer: Yes, I’m fine. No, The Invisible Scar has not stopped publication. Yes, a new post is slated for Monday, May 1.

Longer answer:  Several months ago, the company where I worked for almost a decade had a major restructure. A few of us were laid off before the holidays. It was a brutal hit, financially, emotionally, everything-ly.

It hurt.

But being the primary breadwinner of a family of six means you cannot fall apart. You get up…even if it’s slowly, if your ears are ringing from the hard hit, if you don’t want to. You put one foot in front of the other, and you get moving. You get done what needs to get done.

You pray, you cry, you hope. You look for a break of the light in the clouds and soldier on.

Soldiering on, however, is exhausting, and it left me little energy for The Invisible Scar. Despite my love for its focus and readers (I pray for you regularly), I had to put the blog on hold and focus on finding work.

Now, months later, the clouds are beginning to dissipate. My resume gleams; I’ve steady freelance work at an amazing content marketing agency; I’ve interviews lined up for full-time work.

Most importantly, I’ve learned to find peace and joy, even while soldiering on.

That’s why I’m sharing this personal story here.

If you’re a regular reader of The Invisible Scar, you know I never share about myself. The focus is you, not me. (My only personal post is about a friend’s suicide.) But I wanted to let you know that everyone goes through bad times.

Everyone gets blindsided at some point. Everyone gets hit hard emotionally and loses their breath. Everyone has suffered. Everyone has really terrible events happen—sometimes, even in succession. You might not think so because people often smile through pain, they joke through tears, they hide their hurts.

But it’s human to get hurt. And it’s also very human to have hope.

So, if you’re going through a really bad time, please know that you’re not alone. Soldier on. Don’t look at the whole path. Focus on this moment, right now, and put one foot in front of the other. Pause but never, ever, ever, ever quit moving forward.

Onward and upward, friends.

---

Veronica Jarski is the founder and writer of The Invisible Scar, a passion project dedicated to raising awareness of emotional child abuse and its effects on adult survivors. She has extensive editorial experience and a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Her work has been featured on myriad online publications. She also is the author of an e-book about waking up to the realization that one had an emotionally abusive childhood.