There are times when we look in the mirror and barely recognize what we see. The same is true for our country in troubling times. It is hard to see the cracks, the lines of a tired country, an exhausted soul. Whether the economy has you down or you are struggling to pay the rent, feed the kids, put money aside for your retirement, one thing remains the same. We must face the truth and carry on. We must face the monster in the face, learn to see what we truly fear- the laments of failure and the threat of a dwindling hope. The scars from those difficult situations will only make us stronger; create a new skin and new bond with our neighbors. Now is the time to reach out, to breathe steady and to keep our hands on deck.

Facing odds is never simple. Human beings are full of hesitation, regret and false starts. But if my friend Cathy can do it, so can I, and so can you. I met Cathy a few weeks ago at the gym, her sixty-year old legs accelerating to an ever quicker pace on the treadmill with her canine companion besides her struggling to keep up. Cathy is blind, yet every day she gets up in the morning, makes her way to a gym in the middle of the jungle that is Manhattan and works her muscles to the bone. Her consistency and devotion to strengthening her core is awe-inspiring. But Cathy is not an isolated case of commitment to making a better life against tough odds here in America. There are single moms supporting three kids on a minimal salary that still manage to get home in time for supper and read to their kids. There are doting fathers that work all night just to make ends meet and make their kids breakfast each morning. And there are schoolchildren with nothing but hope and perseverance to push them through crowded schools with little resources and seemingly insurmountable odds: drugs, violence and poverty.

Things are changing however and we must remember to face the truth with integrity and resolution. Every morning we must get up and go. We must set everything in motion to start again for a better today and tomorrow. It is not the luck of the draw but rather a dedicated strength and belief in something grander than us that has made our country thickskinned and sturdy. This skin is not pretty, but rugged. It is made of the blood, sweat and tears of soldiers and prisoners, of civil rights leaders and proud mothers and daughters. It is this skin that is unique to our nature as Americans and that has guided us through generations to build foundations for a more brilliant tomorrow.

As I write this, I am thinking of close friends, close relatives and acquaintances that have lost their jobs, that are trying to break even, that seem to be losing some kind of hope. Some friends ask me, "Why even bother if things are going to get worse before they get better?", "What's the point of getting up in the morning?" and the most painful of all, "What have I got to live for, to contribute to this world?" Well, why does anyone get up and do what they do? It is a deeply rooted faith in mankind, in democracy, in a beautifully complex world.

And so now it is more important than ever to gaze intently at ourselves in the mirror. If we are facing the truth, we will see that it isn't that bad after all and that we have the capacity and hope to change tomorrow. Sure there might be a few lines, a few rough edges, but we have endured and survived through all these years, and so we must now. We might not be able to see the road that lies ahead, but if we pay close attention, we can feel our faith guiding us beneath our very feet. The writer is a recent graduate of New York University's graduate program in Humanities and Social Thought