Suffering produces Hope.

"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
(Romans 5:3-5 ESV)

Not exactly sure where I'm going with this post, but... whatevs, late night rambling. It's hard thinking that Paul was rejoicing in his suffering, because... well suffering is painful. Trying to be patient and enduring through insults and crude jokes is really hard. Even in times where these jokes are more for fun, I find it harder and harder to handle.
I mean from freshmen year when it was just david, it was pretty funny at times. But as each year passed, more and more people caught on that I wouldn't mind if I was made fun of. And honestly, I didn't care. until this year. Recently I've caught myself getting so angry that I imagined myself blasting the next person that annoyed me. And so many opportunities came, except I restrained myself because there were people who would probably misunderstand the situation if I did release my frustrations.
I get a lot of people asking why I let people push me around, and why I let people say the things they do. And as I was thinking about it tonight, I couldn't come up with a real answer. I mean, I'm not the type of person that'll blow up on my own friends, I also don't feel like I'd hold things against people for small, lame, insignificant jokes. But when it boils down to it, I realize that if I do try to "fight back," I'll just be blasted more. I guess you can call me scared, call me whatever you want. In the end, I hope that I will be able to grow from this and be filled with God's love.