Taking It All in Stride

This morning, I woke up and looked out my window to see a bright blue sky and mist rising from the fountain below. The sight was welcoming and pleasant; a brilliant way to start the day. Now, I'm not going to say that I had one of those "All is right with the world. Life is good. Nothing's ever going to go wrong." moments, because I didn't. I am a realist and I know that some things are not all right. Life is not always good. And many things have gone wrong and will go wrong in the future. What I did realize very clearly, though, was that I couldn't change my circumstances and what happens in my life. I could, however, determine how I reacted to those events. That is the one thing over which I hold control. So I determined that today, no matter what happened, I would not succumb to frustration or despondency. Rather, I would face whatever the day held for me with courage and a smile.

Little did I know that I would be fighting a horrible cold all day, have to take a difficult Spanish quiz, and end up falling down the stairs in front of a crowd of students, bruising my knee and my pride. Yet somehow, I managed to keep everything in perspective, because of my determination to not let it beat me. After all, I will get over my cold, I did the best I could on my Spanish quiz, my knee will heal, and rather than wallow in embarrassment, I chose to laugh at myself after falling down the stairs. As a result, what could've turned into a really lousy day was actually quite pleasant - just because I chose to control my attitude instead of letting the events of the day and the people around me control it.

It was a good reminder. Rather than getting stuck in what we can't control, we need to remember what we can - how we respond. After all, like it or not, things we don't like will happen, people will annoy us, there will be difficult assignments, and the weather won't always be pleasant. Some times we'll fall down the stairs (or at least, I will). So we have two choices: we can let it beat us down, making us despondent and unpleasant, or we can take it in stride and learn how to keep smiling through the struggles. It's not easy, but most things worth accomplishing aren't easy. And don't forget, even when you fail in your endeavor, you can always start over. Don't give up. Dust yourself off and keep going.