"IF", by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run

- Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!


This was one of my late Father's favoite poems. One he read to me. I urge you to read it. I urge you to read it and reflect on each IF. You are young, maybe some you haven't felt or lived some of them. But I urge you to relect, reflect on any example of when these IF's may have applied to you. I urge you to read this poem and try your best to hold this wisdom to heart should any of these IF's come your way. Life is a long and sometimes hard journey. Put this poem in your pocket and comfort yourself with it and perhaps use it to prepare for both the joys and pitfalls of life to come, because indeed sometimes you're the bat and sometimes you're the ball - and one needs guidance with both success and failure to handle them both in stride.