Before light

I have a love-hate relationship with my Latin American literature class.

To be honest, I lean very closely towards hate most days.

I have a rough time analyzing poetry in English and well,

give me poetry in Spanish and I'm basically clueless.

But, every once and awhile we'll read something that

really stands out to me. And honestly, it sounds

much more poetic in Spanish, but I love this phrase

from José Martí's poem, Versos Sencillos (Simple Verses):

(via)

"y todo, como el diamante,

antes que luz es carbón. "

 or

"and all, like the diamond,

before it is light is coal."

I like to think that even though a lot of us feel like we're
"still figuring it all out"

and might sometimes have those creeping thoughts of self-doubt...
these difficulties are just part of a refining process and
little by little we'll start to shine.