Giving myself brazilians has taught me everything that I need to know about pain versus gain. It’s not that they hurt more than anything else. I’ve had serious injuries and surgeries that hurt  much more but, whether a bone modifying surgery or a sprained knee that takes 6 months of rehab, the pain is originally inflicted by an external. I might have put myself in the situation to feel pain but I am not the one creating it.  There is something uniquely masochistic about covering a sensitive part of your body in wax, ripping it off, and repeating it over and over again. The whole ‘3-2-1’ thing doctors do doesn’t work when your the one tearing off the proverbial band-aid.

I didn’t start waxing myself because I am a sucker for pain. A good brazilian can cost up to $80 in NYC. I simply can’t legitimize spending that much money every month on something that I can do myself with a $14 kit from the pharmacy. The first time I tried to do it was a failure. Something that they don’t disclose well enough is that once the wax is on, ripping it off really is the only way to remove it without bathing in oil and scrubbing for 2 hrs. I wanted to see if I could even do it so I smeared a 1″ x 2″ piece of my leg with the wax, rubbed on a fabric strip, grabbed it, started to pull it towards myself, and wimped out. The pain that I foresaw in my future didn’t seem worth it…and that was only my leg.

A few weeks later I tried again and was left with a little bare patch on my upper thigh. I was making progress. When I finally started on my bikini line it was slow going. Every couple of weeks I’d be able to do a little more, put up with a little more pain. It’s not as if it stops hurting. The pain just becomes secondary to the satisfaction of success.

To me that extends far beyond the floor of my dorm room. In life we are constantly faced with situations in which we have the opportunity to achieve great things if only we can put up with some amount of discomfort. This is universally true whether you are an athlete training for a big game or a recent college graduate trying to work your way up the corporate ladder.

I wouldn’t suggest that most girls do their own waxing. I would suggest that all people look at the opportunities for growth they’ve been avoiding because they are difficult, tiresome, or even painful, break them into parts, and start tackling them piece-by-piece. It is only when you accept the pain as a part of your path rather than a deterrent that you will be able to reach your full potential.