I just realized that after three and a half years the light sensor in the kitchen at school finally got fixed. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the kitchen and the light that usually just blinks rapidly, came on and brightened the room to brilliance never before seen :). It made me think of my current situation and gave me some hope. If after three and a half years someone remembered that flickering light bulb in the tiny hole of a kitchen, then all is not lost. Mind you, if the bulb had gone out completely, it would have been fixed a long time ago, but because it failed to surrender, it was left to struggle for three and a half years. 
Maybe sometimes the struggle can be avoided. Who said life is supposed to be hard or easy? Sometimes we struggle for a long time because we simply will not put up a white flag or ask for help. Many times I get lost using maps but I don't ask for help until I've circled the entire area at least once. For the light bulb, going out would have been easy, however, I would have never noticed it. I would have never learnt a lesson from it being fixed today. It would have never made an impression on me. The same goes for us, I think. If I get lost while trying to find my way, I, inevitably learn about the area. I learn road names, coffee shop names, paths that leads to train stations, paths that lead nowhere, and eventually the path that leads to my preferred destination. All the other stuff that I learnt while I was lost will help me to find the destination again in the future and may help with other things as well. If I simply ask for help immediately, I pass up the opportunity to learn on my own, with my own eyes and feet. The experience weakens when you throw your hands up too quickly. 
After a while though, the preferred destination becomes more important than the journey to finding it. At that point, if you are not closer to finding it than before, you should definitely seek help. At a certain point, the light bulb will actually need to work to be of use. Three and a half years is a long time, but the good thing is now it's fixed which brings other things to my attention that were unknown to me before. I now get to appreciate the details of the kitchen that I couldn't see before.
Source of pictures: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=flickering+lightbulb&FORM=HDRSC2#view=detail&id=DDD6143695A9FEEB93FA1191F8283CB24EAC1FF4&selectedIndex=8
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=getting+lost&FORM=HDRSC2#a
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