At the ripe, wondrous age of 22, I am still pretty new to this being 20something thing. I’m still learning what to do, what not to do, how to be an adult… I’m definately not an expert on the topic. But in my very first post on this new group blog, I will share with you the most important lesson that I have learned about life. It is something that is still a bit hard for me to swallow. I need constant reminders. And even after telling myself this for the 8,973rd time, I still don’t like to hear it.

But it is important. Here it is… my little bit of wisdom…

Life is full of hiccups and will not always go the way you want it to. Everything will not fall into your lap just because you think it should. Life is not about getting everything you want… it is what you do with whatever life gives you. Good or bad, easy or hard… it’s what you make of it.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking. “Duhh.” Right? Or maybe “No shit.” Or maybe you just think I’m an idiot because I’ve only recently learned this valuable piece of brutal honesty. But hear me out, okay?

I’m the youngest in my family. I’m very ambitious, and very persistent. I have spent most of my life getting everything I wanted. Things did just fall into my lap. I got good grades with very little effort. I’ve gotten every job I’ve ever interviewed for. I’ve been given a lot with no strings attached. Money has never been a huge issue. Life has been pretty easy. But all of this time I was under the impression that I got whatever I wanted because I just went for it. Like if I wanted something bad enough, it would just happen.

Clearly, I was disillusion. Life is just not that kind.

It takes some major rejection to finally realize that the world does not owe you anything. It’s not a matter of playing your cards right… or having good karma. You cannot stop bad things from happening no matter how good of a person you are. It doesn’t even matter if you make all of the “right decisions.” Sometimes things just happen and you have to deal with it. Or in some cases, things don’t happen. Either way, you can’t blame the world… or God… or Buddha. You can’t even blame yourself.

It is what it is.

But let’s look at the bright side, a.k.a. the reason why life in your twenties is so much fun… it is full of surprises! No matter how many plans you make, life will always catch you off guard. You just have to realize that just because something doesn’t go the way you had hoped, doesn’t mean that your life is ruined. Sometimes things don’t work out because there is something even better waiting for you.

I once lost a job because one of my co-workers blamed me for something that I did not do because she wanted me to get fired. It worked and I was pissed. No, I was furious. And scared. Umm… now what?

I’ll tell you what… I made one phone call and ended up getting a much better job that payed more, was more prestigious, had more flexibility, and that I could be proud of. Being fired was the best thing that could have happened to me because it opened up so many doors… doors that I could never have planned on opening.

This concept is true for relationships as well, but I’ll save that for another post.

For now, read the other posts on this site because I’m sure they are wonderful… just like the girls who are writing them. And then subscribe to our feed because there’s a lot of good stuff to come. That is something that you can actually plan on!

P.S. For more from me, I write at Jesswrites.com!

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 2:30 am and is filed under Hiccups, Jess writes stuff, because we should be giving advice, learning, twentysomething. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.