For the past 12 seasons, the namesake of "Grey's Anatomy" has been teaching viewers how to make the most of every day. Sometimes, life throws into some pretty tough challenges. We're forced to test ourselves mentally, emotionally and maybe even physically. But fans of the show can agree that Meredith Grey has seen the worst of such challenges. And no matter how unbearable a challenge may have been, she continues to come out on the other side wiser than before. She takes the difficulty of the trial and turns into a lesson to share with the rest of us.
1. "They say ignorance is bliss because once you know about the tumor or the prognosis, you can't go back. Will you be strong or will you fall apart? It's hard to predict, so don't worry about it. Enjoy the time you have before the news comes. Yep, ignorance is bliss."
We have no way of knowing what may happen tomorrow, what news we may receive, so there's no point in worrying about the unknown. We have to enjoy what's right in front of us. The things of which we are sure.
2. "There don't have to be harps playing, or birds singing, or rose petals falling from the sky. And there are definitely days when the romance is dead. But if you look around, things are pretty amazing. So stop for a second, enjoy the beauty, feel the magic, drink it in. Because it won't last forever. The romance will fade, things will happen, people will change, love will die. But maybe not today."
Again, the only thing we can be sure about is the fact that we can't be sure about anything. Even if we're scared that things will change, we should still bask in the beauty that is happening right now.
3. "At some point, you have to make a decision. Boundaries don't keep other people out. They fence you in. Life is messy. That's how we're made. So you can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them."
It may be one of the hardest things we ever do, but we have to learn to live life outside of our comfort zones. That's when life truly happens.
4. "I think you can't wait for someone to fly underneath you and save your life. I think you have to save yourself."
We can't be dependent upon other people. We can't walk around waiting for another person to show up and hope that this person will make us whole. Whether it's a boyfriend, girlfriend or best friend, other people aren't meant to save us. We are meant to take action and save ourselves.
5. "Who gets to determine when the old ends and the new begins? It's not a day on a calendar, not a birthday, not a new year. It's and event. Big or small. Something that changes us. Ideally, it gives us hope."
We don't have to wait for a specific calendar date to set new goals and plans for ourselves. We can do that any day. Inspiring things unfold all around us. Major life events and small happenings. It's all capable of giving us hope. We just have to make sure we're paying attention.
6. "We all think we're going to be great. And we feel a little bit robbed when our expectations aren't met. But sometimes, our expectations sell us short. Sometimes, the expected simply pales in comparison to the unexpected. The unexpected is what changes our lives."
It's easy to have big dreams and set plans at our age. After all, we're told that we have our entire lives ahead of us, so we need to prepare for it. We even have to decide which careers we want to pursue when we're only 18-years-old, fresh out of high school. But at the end of the day, we never truly know what we're capable of until we do it. And we can do it anytime.
7. "Why do bad things happen to good people? We ask that question so often, it's become a cliche, but that's because bad things do happen to good people constantly. You just have to hope that when it's your turn, you'll know what to do, how to cope, how to persevere. But the truth is, you don't know how you'll react to your worst-case scenario. None of us do. Not until it happens."
The unexpected can be exciting, but the unexpected can also be frightening. We hope we never have to face our worst-case scenarios. But we will face them. Eventually. We just have to hope that we can prevail and come out stronger afterward.
8. "The ties that bind us are sometimes impossible to explain. They connect us even after it seems like the ties should be broken. Some bonds defy distance and time and logic. Because some ties are simply meant to be."
We can all think of a relationship in which we built a strong connection with another person. Some of us can think of multiple. Some of these relationships may still have a place in the present. Some of them may have been lost. But we have to appreciate each one. Because they may be meaningful today or they once may have been meaningful, but they are all special.
9. "It's one of those things that people say: you can't move on until you let go of the past. Letting go is the easy part. It's the moving on that's painful. So sometimes we fight it, try and keep things the same. Things can't stay the same, though. At some point, you just have to let go. Move on. Because no matter how painful it is, it's the only way we grow."
We're afraid of change. It's easier to stick to the familiar. To the things we've become used to. But no matter how badly we want things to stay the same, life keeps moving. And we need to move along with it. It's how we learn. It's how we grow stronger.
10. "No matter how thick-skinned we try to be, there's millions of electrifying nerve endings in there. Open and exposed and feeling way too much. Try as we might from feeling pain, sometimes, it's just unavoidable. Sometimes, that's the only thing left: just feeling."
But in life, we need to feel things. It's important for us to feel things. To feel the pain, no matter how badly we just want to run away from it. We were made to feel. That way, we are able to learn.
11. "Some days, the whole world seems upside-down. And then somehow, improbably, and when you least expect it, the world rights itself again."
On those upside-down days, it feels like the world will never right itself again. Like the worst has become permanent. But it's true: the world becomes better when we least expect it to happen. Watch out for that moment. And appreciate it.
12. "Knowing is better than wondering, waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beats the hell out of never trying."
We need to try. We deserve to try. We owe ourselves trying. We don't know what is going to happen to our lives, but as the cliche goes: we'll never know unless we try.
13. "Life is not a spectator sport. Win, lose or draw, the game is in progress, whether we want it to be or not. So go ahead. Argue with the refs. Change the rules. Cheat a little. Take a break. And tend to your wounds. But play. Play. Play hard. Play fast. Play loose and free. Play as if there's no tomorrow."
As mentioned before, we have to keep trying. We have to get out there and live life. We can't expect magnificent things to happen if we just lie on the couch all day. Try as hard as you can. And you'll make your goals.
14. "We'll try and we'll fail again because that's what progress looks like. Progress looks like a bunch of failures. And you're going to have feelings about that because it's sad. But you cannot fall apart. And then one day, we will succeed and save a person's life and we will walk on the moon."
At our age, it can seem as though we're facing failure after failure after failure. But that is what success looks like. Because we're learning. And we're growing. We can't give up. We can't let the failure win. Because once we do find that success, we'll thank the failures for making us stronger.
