4SSSS

sac·ri·fice/ˈsakrəˌfīs/

Noun:	An act of slaughtering an animal or person or surrendering a possession as an offering to God or to a divine or supernatural figure.
Verb:	Offer or kill as a religious sacrifice.
Synonyms:	noun.  offering - oblation - victim - immolation - prey verb.  immolate - victimize - offer

suf·fer/ˈsəfər/

Verb:	Experience or be subjected to (something bad or unpleasant). Be affected by or subject to (an illness or ailment).
Synonyms:	endure - bear - undergo - tolerate - sustain - stand

As I was finishing up my dissertation, the two words that sprang to my mind were sacrifice and suffer.  I felt I had sacrificed so much of myself (physically and emotionally) as an offering to the Academic gods.  I felt I had bled, and that I had made many offerings.  But the definitions of this word pointed out to me that it was not an empowering term, that it painted me as some kind of prey or victim.  

Then I found suffer, which resonated a bit better.  Endurance is one of my specialties.  Now that I've made it "through the ringer" I feel as though my two new words for 2012 are sanity and satisfaction.

Also got a kick out of this vid also about pain and suffering.  Explains how cycling helped me finish my Ph.D.