“You know, son, hell is for people who don’t believe in themselves.”

I’m sitting with my old man on the porch of my childhood home. It’s after midnight and we’re both drunk.

At 19, I was considering my next steps in life. I felt lost and full of doubt.

Maybe he was considering the steps he’d taken throughout his life. Maybe he felt the same way.

Our home wasn’t religious, you see. So lessons of faith were often cloaked in practicality.

“Hell is in your head” is what he meant. You don’t have to die to be damned—the demons live within.

More than 20 years later, I still live with demons.

So does my old man.

So does everybody else.

We all feel lost at one time or another. We doubt ourselves. Regret the past.

But we also find ourselves, more often than not. We find the strength to push back, turn doubt into belief.

“You know, Dad, you gotta go through hell to find heaven.”