Since people constantly feel the need to post threads saying, "This is what inspired me to get through life" (which doesn't deserve a thread to itself), I'm making this thread for people to put that in.

The point of this thread is simple. What kept you moving? Why would you get up and try again? Why do you keep fighting through life? What caused you to push through even in your worst moments?

Please tell me because maybe your inspiration will inspire others!

I'll start. I fought through life, even in the moments where I just wanted to die, for one reason. I wanted to prove people wrong.

All my life, I heard people telling me I won't succeed, is makes me feel weak. People look down on me. What would be more fun than proving them wrong and ending up on top? So, I get up every morning and try because I want to prove them wrong. I want to be there and see the look on their faces when they see that they under estimated me. I know I am better than them, and I want to prove it.

It may sound brutal, but it's the truth. I know I'm not the best at everything or the smartest, but I'll willingly admit when someone is better than me or I'm bad at something. The fact is, the people who put me down are the people who can't even prove their own intelligence. I refuse to allow that.

What pushed me through the earlier parts of my life was becoming a United States Marine. Now however, I'm not entirely sure. I was taught not to give up, and anyone who commits suicide I consider a pussy. But if anything bad came my way, I don't think I'll want to fight it off as much as I wanted to before I found out that I couldn't join the Marine Corps.

I can't say there's a whole lot left of me to die. If you look at me, you'll just see an empty shell. Part of me never made it out of that hospital, and have long since expired.

Hrm, what keeps me going, you say? Well, truth be told, I want to make an impact on history and forever be known. I know it sounds completely hopeless, but it's worth a shot, right?

I want to be able to walk down the street and hear people say; "Holy crap it's that guy who did that one thing!" then have an endless wave of cheering. If Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton can have their names etched into history, then so can I! That way I won't be forgotten when I die. I'll create something revolutionary, something SO groundbreaking, it'll make the atom and hydrogen bombs look like shit. Time travel? Discovering the secrets of the ocean? Giving Azazel intelligence? Wow, I really need to plan this out...

But yeah, I want to leave my mark in history.

"What keeps me going"

To tell the truth, I suppose it's ambition. There are many things I want to do before I die, and so irritations like other people don't really bring suicide to mind anymore. I can't exactly make new friends by being a pile of ash in a box, now can I? -This is not an invitation for sarcastic humour-

I suppose the guilt of putting my loved ones through that is also a good reason not to off myself, or have someone else do it. I try not to be too selfish.

I have two things that keep me from giving up. My first is that so many people have gave everything to see me succeed. My "father", who raised me to be an emotionally strong individual, died when I was 10 and I feel like if I gave up now, I would be letting him down. My second is to prove so many people wrong. People I used to look up to have tried to crush my dreams simply because they couldn't do it or because i was agnostic and not christian. They insist I won't be able to succeed and I want to grow up and then laugh at them when the come to me for help. "Why do you keep fighting through life?" Because I need to prove to people I'm worthy of living.

Yuki (not from vampire knight) and the fact that I know, since I'm still quite young, Life does get better in the end.

What inspires me to even bother getting out of bed ebvery day is that I have my dad to look after. HE's slowly dying from kidney failure and its my job to make sure he's not about to keel over each day. I'm only 15 btw.

For as far as school.. I need my education to make a living.

for writing, I just think of things that people would want to see.

My life is an unusual one.

"What keeps me going"

The little things really. When someone does something kind for someone, or when I see someone helping someone out, I realize the world isn't so bad. There's people out there who are compassionate and willing.

Another thing that keeps me going is my ambition to write a book. It's a very...odd ambition, but I love to read and I love to write. If it's one way to leave a legacy, that'll be it.

>>7 You're a really strong person.

I lost two people who were very close to me this year, one of them died on my eighteenth birthday.
It hurt so badly and all of it happened so fast. One day everything is fine and you're just happily living your life - and then the next, everything is gone. Just like that.
It's been a few months now but I kind of feel like everything changed. That I'll never return to be that naive person I was before.
But I know that there are people who have it a lot harder than me and that at a younger age, so I feel kind of... stupid, for not getting a grip on myself.
For now, what keeps me going is my desire to... well, find myself again, I guess. I feel lost, like I don't know who I am anymore or what to do with my life, so I want to find out. Even if I can't return to be the person I was, I want to find the new me.

Personally, I don't know why I', even still here. Maybe it's ambition to help people- to be remembered as the one who fights for the underdig.

I do know one thing, though. Music is one of the biggest things in my life.

It may sound stupid, but when it boiled down to it the only thing that kept me here was just giving life another chance. There are some good parts, and bad, but I always thought, "What the hell, I came this far why not give it one more chance?"

I personalty want to know how my life turns out why end when its the path goes farther. Life can be wonderful or horrible I'm curious how mine will be. I can help people so why not live for them if not for myself.

>>1 Mine would be a lot like yours but there are a few things that "keep me going" as well.

What keeps me going is the fact that I need to be strong for those around me and I can't do that if they see me all upset and stuff. Also, another thing that keeps me going is a quote I once read "Even though your problems are tough, there will always be someone else who is worse off."
Which I find to be true. My mother who is raising my younger brother and I by herself didn't start from a very flash place. In fact her childhood would be something that could only come from a nightmare. Yet even though she lived through that hell she came out on top to find only more problems. And even then and even now we're living a happy life because of the struggles my mother had to go through. So if she can get up every morning with a smile on her face and happy to be alive. Then why can't I as well?

I am currently searching a motivation. I don't want to sound like a weeabo or an otaku, but I want to become a Mangaka or at least a writer because it is the only way I can express my inner self. I want to find something that can motivate me to continue do to what I want to do. I'm turning 18 this month, not going to college(but plan to next year), and I am emotionally and physically not ready for ANYTHING! I really hate this about myself.

One thing used to keep me going. Music.

There was nothing better than listening to a band I love, telling me: "Do you really want to give this all away
Can't you ever see things in a different way some day
Such a beautiful thing to throw away
You should think things through over and over again"

The name of the song is No Giving Up, by Crossfade.