What better way is there to live?

Marie Curie was a legend, she was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win two Nobel Prize in two different sciences, She together with her husband discovered radioactivity, a concept that helped study the structure of the atom, and radium which is central to cancer treatment. That was the mark she left in the world and that's the headline that will go down in history. What this introduction doesn't tell you is how many failures and adversities she had to endure before achieving the role model status. Well, lots of it, in fact following the most unconventional route possible she had to earn whatever she accomplished. (Hint: it was the 19th century, women were not allowed to study let alone in the sciences and a Pole when Russia controlled Poland).

Here are some anecdotes history won't tell you about. She couldn't afford university education, so she made an agreement with her sister where each would for the other. So, she worked to pay for her sister's education, who would return the favor once she graduated. In college, she had to work for her up keep, sometimes fainting due to hunger or the cold. She and her husband were invited to a conference in London but she wasn't allowed to speak  because she was a woman. She wasn't dominated for the Noble Prize by the committee in the first place, her husband was, it was the Swedish mathematician Goester who proposed her , after he was nominated. She had to conduct her research in her backyard because she couldn't get a lab. In short Marie suffered it all , yet she conquered all.

She could have taken the easier route, become a house wife and live happily ever after, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't her definition of happy. I quote her own words, "Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that?We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that thing must be attained. That thing must be attained even if our achievements are lost to history."  This is as inspiring as it gets. When it feels like its all tumbling down, don't quit , instead,  ask yourself, what better is there to live?