Jacob's Song Pick of the Day (11/03/2015): "Heavy" by Emblem3

Today's song is inspired by the challenges that we all face in our lives. For today, I have picked "Heavy" by Emblem3.  Have a listen and read why I chose this song today:

"I knew from the start, the start/All of the struggles that we go through/They may scar my heart/But in the end, it's what will make you".

It doesn't matter whether you are going through health challenges, money challenges, relationship challenges, we all have our own struggles. Some struggles only stay a short time before changing, but other struggles can stay with us for our entire lives. These challenges bring out certain characteristics of who we are, they shape us into the people we are today. How you work to overcome your challenges can be defined as Resilience. The wonderful people at the BystanderRevolution.org/@BystanderRev (on Twitter) were quite touched by the sharing of my story that they honored me with one of their Upstander Awards:

My home nurse and I were chatting today about how crazy a journey it's been with my Crohn's Disease and heart issues over the last 3 years. I've gone through medical crisis after medical crisis with only short-term solutions to try to find something that would get my Crohn's under control. She said that she knows Crohn's is very difficult to live with, but that I'm by far one of her patients who has had the most struggles with it that she's worked with in awhile. Truth be told, it is hard to cope when your disease is so resistant to treatment. Participating in various campaigns and donating my time to help others is something positive I can do that helps me escape all this day-to-day "stuff" that I would love to be able to completely ignore. Sitting sick at home has forced me to connect with others in a different type of way. Making new "internet friends" and spreading the word about giving, hope, and courage has become my new daily "thing".

There has been something great to come out of all of this. I'm reaching more and more people with my story everyday, which helps to spread the word about my #beforeIdie wish to help make a difference for other sick kids by creating child-friendly IV treatment rooms. It's come up to one year since I started making plans for Jacob's Healing Rooms, and all of the work, the frustration at not being able to find words and make sentences is finally starting to take off. I'm so excited to continue to help inspire others through my charity work.