Life is about give and take. The challenges and obstacles we face throughout our lifetime may seem depressing and difficult, but as the saying goes, "Everything happens for a reason." Everything we go through in life is somehow meant to prepare us for the rest of the journey.
Possibly to give us some kind of insight as to how to handle the various situations that may arise; to help us achieve the goals we have set for ourselves; to give us confidence that we can do anything if we just put our minds to it. For some, life is an endless cycle of ups and downs.
Sometimes, we take life for granted in the sense that it could always be worse. "The grass is greener on the other side," we think. "The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree," a saying that becomes truer as we get older. "You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t," a statement everyone should take to heart.
While life can mostly be about give and take as stated before, life is also about risks and consequences. Do we as college students really want to look back on our days at UH and regret not taking a chance? Will we look back and feel as if we lived life to the fullest extent?
For some, answering these questions is an easy task because they are simple yes or no questions. Then again, think about how life is currently treating you. Think about how the things you are experiencing in the here and now affect you and those around you. Think about the things that bother you most in life. Are they really worth the time, energy and effort to dwell on and constantly ponder?
If we constantly focus on the bad things in life, then bad things will continue to happen. But if you try to overcome pessimism and try to be just a little bit more optimistic, then perhaps your luck will change for the better.
No one said life was an easy task or that living life gets any easier as we grow older. We just learn that life is what we make of it.
It is going to be rough at times. It is going to seem as if the cards and the cosmos are against you. It is a factor of life. With that said, remember we are all human. There are going to be times when we feel life is just too tough.
There will be many complicated moments and situations that will teach us many important lessons. What doesn’t hurt us now will make us stronger later, right? We just have to take life one day at a time and enjoy every moment along the way.
Latimer, a post-baccalaureate English student, can be reached via [email protected]
