Graphic by Megan Eloise/The Gazelle

ACCRA, Ghana — Never have I hit a brick wall quite like the one that stood in my way the night before I left for Ghana.

The prospect of living in a new country for five months, after barely 36 hours with my family, seemed impossible. I was exhausted: physically from unrelenting travel and emotionally from constant change and grieving a loss. I felt depleted.

I'm not ashamed to say that I sobbed, as thoughts of a semester off and the safety of home raced through my brain. I don't have to go, I can graduate later, I can stay here. But I didn't. I'm now here, in Ghana, and thriving.

We all hit walls. Athletes, exhausted from their endeavours, are the classic example but I think many of us mere mortals do too. And, like runners, we just need to take one step forward. That evening all I asked of myself was to go to sleep. The next morning, my simple task was to step on the plane. Step by step, activity by activity, we climb onwards until the impossible becomes the achieved.

For many of my classmates, coming to Ghana was a breeze, but I know the bravery it took for me to be here. I'm still taking each day at a time, but each day is becoming easier, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow more and more. I don't have to last the full five months, but somehow I now feel that I can and that's not something I would have said last week. Now that I've broken through the wall, I know how much stronger I am and I know I can do it again. Taking time out might sometimes be the right thing to do, but I nearly gave up on something that's already making me happy all because fear and exhaustion were crippling.

We don't become braver by not doing what scares us, but we can't progress with the suffocating big picture. It just requires taking that next step. So the next time you are scared, inch forward. You don't know how far you’ll go until you try.