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It's been a year and some change since I broke my ankle, and so much has changed since then, between the virus and so many personal changes like a break up, travel, new house, and graduation. I'm glad I broke the ankle, but I can't say I would recommend it to anyone else. It's not been the bone that has had a lasting effect so much as the tendons and scar tissue that's built up around the injury. I've learned from it, and I certainly plan on advocating for safe climbing in my future gym and how to avoid such injuries for patrons.

So in the spirit of mending broken things, lets think about how we can fix things in our lives. I'm not going to pretend like any of us have this figured out at all, but the least we can do is speculate on various ideas.

First things first is time. The saying goes that time heals all wounds, so patience and forgiveness I believe are paramount, and these are especially paramount for treating yourself with respect. Without patience, we can get fed up and leave prematurely before the problem is resolved, and without forgiveness we cannot accept the mistakes and failures as natural and necessary actions to mending what is broken.

We must have gratitude for the things we have. We must look back into the past, revel in the good things, and understand and appreciate the bad things. Without reflecting on the past experiences, it is impossible to know what needed to be learned and how you've grown, and can continue to grow from such fractures.

We also need persistence. In Taekwondo, one of the core tenets is Perseverance. Life is the longest, most tedious and difficult task any of us will have to do, and it takes immense willpower to grind through it and not just survive, but live. So to fix problems (whether it's a broken dishwasher or a broken heart), it takes constant concerted effort to learn, adapt, and overcome.

And lastly, we need love. Love is such a broad term that some of its major facets have already been covered, but to love your problems, to love your wounds, and to love your life can truly help put your mind at ease. When you no longer fight with an issue but rather accept it and dissolve it into manageable and profitable pieces, you may find that the problem can be put into perspective easier, and so can be fixed easier.

The hottest new belief on the block is nihilism, where in the grand scheme of things nothing that you do matters. And to be frank, that's true. But on the other end, none of your problems matter either. Perhaps that fills you with dispair, but I think that it's comforting really because it means our problems are only temporary, and if we can deal with them and share the knowledge we gained from the solutions, the world can be better off.

And like a skipping stone on water, our ripples may not reach the shore, but they are necessary to carry us forward to the next step.

Unless of course you're one of those really big rocks that "skips" once and has lots of problems but doesn't share the solutions.