They can never take it away from you

I was in a lecture the other week and my lecturer said something that will stick with me for a long, long time. She said that "Knowledge is yours, no matter what, and no one can take that away from you. What you choose to do with it, that is up to you". It was one of those moments when something just clicked within me and a few things just began to make sense. 

Whether the knowledge you have gained is through educational studies, or just lessons of life - they're yours and yours alone. No matter where we go in life, who we meet and the struggles we come up against, no one can take the things that we have learnt away from us. I guess in that sense I can understand why so many people say, "knowledge is power", It is. 

With knowledge we can become stronger, wiser and braver. We can teach our lessons to others and feel content in the notion that we have passed on our wisdom. From birth we are taught how to walk, talk, read, write. Every day we are taking in new things and we are growing as individuals, and collectively as a world. 

It doesn't matter how we learn things, if it's the hard way or not. All that matters is that we do learn because sometimes our biggest mistakes provide more knowledge to us than our greatest achievements. And with every success we get stronger, but with every mistake we find out so much more. I've made many mistakes, and have learnt things the hard way on all too many occasions. I have fought and conquered, I have fought and lost. No matter what though, I have continued. 

I think that's because I have learnt that, through every trial and tribulation, things get better and every lesson in life happens for a reason. Never underestimate the power of knowledge.