Something I usually look forward to when sick is the time I finally get pricked by an injection.
Compared to some people, it took till I was almost out of my teenage age to start taking injection. A simple or complex combination of pills seemed to always do the trick and I never got so sick as to need the needles.
Maybe it was that deprivation or just the unreasonably long time it took for those drugs to finally work that made me like injections, but I always preferred it.
There was nothing great about being sick and being tended to even when I was young. The fact that I eat very little on a good day and then I fall sick and my irrational cravings kick in is a bummer. But the worst is, I could never even bring myself to eat those delicacies when presented to me.
Why keep subjecting myself to that when a couple of needle pricks in my butt could fix me quicker than those bitter pills down my throat could.
But the lesson I learnt from the injection is what fascinates: if it could be done faster, do it faster. You can save so much by taking the direct route.
But more importantly, it’s not about a shortcut. It’s about something that works. Yet that it works doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. That’s what the pain afterwards tell me. That pain I feel every time I try to sit is a reminder that there’s always a price to pay for you to get better at something.
Even if you have to go through a shorter route, you still have to pay the price because shorter routes would be crowded if it were easy.
So while it is necessary to do the work, it is not a thing of honour to take a longer path just because everyone who has gone before you claims it is how it should be.
Do something different, look for a new faster route, but be willing to pay the price.
