One of the greatest ironies is that to be happy, you need to experience sadness.

If you are always happy, you are not happy. That is your normal state. Happiness ranges from contentment to immense joy, and these only exist if a discontent and immensely sad side of the spectrum exists as well.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been hit with waves of sadness. Patients passing away. World issues. Getting silly questions wrong in an exam. They all suck in the moment. Some days I seriously considered disappearing just to get rid of it all. You could call it a season of sadness.

But there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. When you crawl through the battlefield, scathed but alive, a different person emerges. You have metamorphosed into a more complex, appreciative and tender creature.

Change is always difficult and often follows sadness. But these low moments are what make the high moments ones shine, like how the bliss of sleep feels warmer after a long, hard day.