Monday, July 8, 2013

Refusing to Stop Trying

One thing I have realized in life is when the world begins to turn on you and things seem to feel like you might be overwhelmed, life is about to do something special. Things can always get worse and in this particular case, I mean "always." I had a friend want to catch up a bit today and see how I was doing. Well, right now life is only just a tad hectic.

I still don't have an apartment figured out for where I am going to be living in for the next fall with grad school. I don't even know if it is going to be in Provo and I am going to commute with the train or whether I am going to be in Salt Lake. I don't know if I am rooming with anyone that I know or if it is going to be random. I still don't have my check back from my last landlord with the security deposit and refund from pro-rated June. My work didn't end up paying me last week for anything and so combined I have about $1K of money floating around. And when it comes to schedule, I still am not sure I know how my summer is going to end. Fly home and paint house for my dad, quit work a week early and road trip to San Diego, switch shifts so I can go see a Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20 concert in Las Vegas... There is a lot up in the air and there is a lot that has already been shot down. I now know for certain that I officially won't be able to go on my graduation trip to Cancun. My family is still going to go because they have everything scheduled and work aligned and everything so I am glad that it won't be wasted but it definitely is a sucky situation.

But let me for a second put this all in perspective.

I have a lot of money is savings or still owed to me so financially I am stable and well off. I have medical insurance that covers me so I am not screwed because of my health. If I didn't have medical insurance then my diabetes would be considered a pre-existing condition and I would have to pay all of my diabetic supplies and so forth out of pocket and I would go broke entirely. I have a roof over my head. I am a alive. I don't have a family or kids to pay for so my expenses are controlled the best that they can. I have no illegitimate children I have to worry about or at least that I am aware of. I have no loans or debt of any kind and in all reality I have grad school basically all paid for. I am working and making money. I have a vehicle that runs still even though I think I may have killed the AC in it recently, it still works. Really life is good and it could be a whole lot worse than it is now.

Some days things are tough. All of the cards seem to point in the other guy's favor. You can't catch any breaks. Everything you seem to do is wrong. You can get discouraged. You can get down on yourself. But the big thing is that success doesn't create lasting happiness. Happiness creates success and happiness is based on perspective.

Things can be a whole lot worse even when things may be hard now. All it means is that if you refuse to stop trying, you won't let your circumstances stop you or tear you down, then you are choosing to become stronger. You are growing and good things are in store for you. Soon the rain will stop and the sun will come out and the blessings will come. You cannot control what other people choose to do or not do. But you can control how much you are going to let it affect you. What some people might feel would be the twist of the knife after the stab in the back, you can pull yourself out of your situation and learn from the lesson, find the hidden blessings, and be supportive and loving regardless of how you are treated. You can center yourself and try to put yourself in their shoes because we all have the same basic needs and wants, we just have a different perspective. So no matter how much life feels like it is going to hell in a hand basket, I refuse to stop trying. I refuse to give in.


"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall. (Helaman 5:12)"

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