Have you ever had one of those days when everything that could possibly go wrong does go wrong? I had one of those weekends and it seems like I’m having one of those semesters in school too. It’s been a really long couple of months. But I’m only going to write about this one weekend I had.
I really can’t tell you why, but Murphy’s Law always seems to apply to me. Anything that can happen will happen. I once got ticketed for a problem with my car in the mechanics parking lot – yes, I was there to fix the problem. This weekend was the weekend for problems. For starters it was really busy. I had a lot going on. My parents were leaving the country (and then out of it).
The first thing to happen was my car breaking down. Then the tow truck guy brought the wrong type of tow. Then the car I borrowed got a flat and got keyed. I got stranded. I got lost. I missed an appointment (or two). The dog kept waking up at 4 am. My work schedule got changed last minute. A friend bailed on helping me (last minute). and the list of things that happened kept growing!
To be honest, everything that could happen did happen. I know that the world didn’t end and I didn’t get hurt, but I also know that the devil was doing everything he could to break me – and he got really, really close. But this post isn’t really about how hard life was for about 5 days.
This post is about how much adversity can teach us. For starters, I can’t do everything on my own. I know this, but I like to pretend that it is not true. This stressful weekend forced me to rely on my grandmother and my brother for help.
The other thing I learned is, that I need to go to God more when I’m stressed. I hear lots of people say that when things get bad that’s when they turn to God. I’m the opposite. It’s really a control thing. But I was going to snap, so I went to God. I prayed and it really does help.
And finally, I learned that I need to be more flexible and understanding. I’m pretty sure every person I’m close to has told me I need to do work on these areas, but this crazy few days really showed me how badly. I need to just go with the flow sometimes. I can’t control everything and I need to accept what is outside my control and roll with the punches.
Life isn’t always easy. It isn’t always fun. But when adversity strikes is when the most learning happens. The head coach for the UCONN women’s basketball team Geno Aurriema lead his team on a 90 game when streak where they won every game by double digits. He in an interview he once said that his team went into the locker room after every win and treated it like a loss. He said that you don’t learn anything from winning because you were good enough. When you lose you have room for improvement. This is a philosophy that applies to life. When you lose, when you struggle, when you fail, when things don’t go your way, it is easier to learn from you experiences. I life there is always room for improvement, so through this experience I chose to learn from it instead of continuing the same patter.
