Life is hard. There's no easy way out. No matter where you're from or how you're raised I can guarantee that life will throw you lemons. But will you make lemonade?
I will admit that I have pessimistic tendencies. Instead of turning a sticky situation into a learning experience I usually whine and pout and make a scene, than I accept the consequences and learn something later on. That combined with my lack of decision-making skills has resulted in me learning an abundance of lessons in the last year. Nearly all of them the hard way.
I used to love being busy. Having something to do every night of the week made me feel kind of important. And I liked that. I did find it difficult to fit everything into my schedule though. There was a point in my life when I tried to balance High school (Aka Homework, friends, and sometimes studying a little bit) my boyfriend (A new development at the time, which is a story in itself) My best friend, work (Stressful at the best of times!) and an extensive role in a drama. I was busy every single day. At first I loved it, than it started to get a little bit stressful, and than just because handling stress is not a gift of mine I got more stressed, and more stressed and more stressed. Than I bought a car (With money I didn't have). Than I got mono...and everything stopped.
Life was throwing me lemons. So I had to make a choice, was I going to wallow at home in self-pity and milk this sickness for every drop it was worth or was I going to make lemonade? Well, I did neither. I didn't rest, I didn't stay home and I didn't make anything. I kept doing everything that I was doing before and didn't listen to the warnings from people who loved me an told me that I needed to take a break. They kept telling me that life would still go on if I missed a day of school or didn't go to work. Instead of trying to get better I kept feeding my illness all the stress and lack of sleep it needed and it nestled comfortably in my body.
After butchering my immune system, depleting my bank account, severely affecting my grades in school and overall hurting my pride mono finally picked up and left much later than necessary. I sat down one day and (like the pessimist I am) I wrote down everything in my life that was ruined by mono. I huffed. I puffed. I whined. I griped. And finally I looked back and realized how foolish I was being. Here I thought that my life was destined to be bitter all because I tried to make lemonade and forgot to add any sugar. Or water. In fact, all I really had in the end was the exact same lemons I was given 6 months earlier. Except now they were mouldy and wrinkly and not good to eat.
So yet again I had to make a decision. I could A) Put the lemons in a box and be forever reminded that mono ruined my life B) Throw out the lemons, purchase new ones, (Most likely at a high cost) look up a recipe online and never try to do learn anything on my own again because the consequences are to risky C) Move on. I chose C. Instead of calling the rotten lemons a loss, I decided to call them experience.
Perhaps next time I have an acidic fruit rudely thrown at my head I'll remember how sour things can be if key ingredients are forgotten (Aka Love, patience, and respect for my body) and I'll add some sugar to it. Heck maybe I'll even bake a cake!
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