As a 20-something-year old, I've always believed you have to have some form of trust in the universe and be willing and totally open to change. But to be honest, I didn't actually have a huge role in the dog's adoption. Some friends heard of an adorable family of puppies in a local small town and rushed down with me at the last minute to bring her home. I just felt like this was my chance and something that I needed to do.
At one point eventually my life really just became a blur. One day, I woke up and realized how much I really hated my current job, was bored with my life situation, most of all, I was lonely. I needed a copilot. That copilot soon became a yellow lab named Belle.
Needless to say, here's a few way's this little creature changed my life:
1. A reason to come home every day
Having a living, breathing thing that required attention and care waiting at home changed my priorities. I still do my every day routine, and carry on like normal but it's nice to come home to a beautiful little creature waiting to hear how my day was waiting on me to feed her and just ready to spend time all the time in the world with me.
2. It taught me how to make an impossible situation bearable
I was always stressed with school. College wasn't easy, and working and going to school full time eventually caught up with me. I was working a job that I hated, treated like shit and convinced really that it was all my fault. It sucked, but at the end of everyday, it was time to hang out with my dog, and finally none of it mattered. You celebrate their successes when they learn to sit or shake. You mindlessly talk to them when getting ready or thinking about your day. It just became part of the routine. A routine I would never want to learn to live without.
3. It taught me patience
She chewed on anything and everyone she could find. She ruined a rug, shredded most of my shoes and made a profession out of trying to chew the chords off of everything she could find. I learned that with time, you can make anything possible. Day by day, little by little, if you invest time into something the payoff is worth the time spent trying. That approach pays in real life too, giving me the ability to work towards a bigger goal rather than settling for an immediate, but smaller one.
4. It taught me to trust again
The trust behind allowing a dog to walk without a leash is one of the biggest obstacles to over come when first training your dog. The trust enabling that arrangement is similar to a two way street, relying on clear and open communication and a relationship where I can never be anything but a safe place for her. If I give her that, then in return she's never been more than a few feet from my side. This little beauty taught me so much, just working little by little to trust in something from the beginning again.
5. And how to love again
Following a terrible break up with a person I thought I was going to marry, I was really just left looking for the right thing in the wrong places. Turns out getting a dog allowed me to pour my love into something and get it back in equal measure. It took the pressure off relationships and turned me from a wreck, into someone with the confidence to wait for the right thing to come at the right time. She reminded me not to fear what needed to be lost.
Although my ideal life timeline ended up not working out, I still have my brown-eyed, four-legged girl licking my tears and begging me to play every single moment of the day. Adopting a dog was not only the best decision of my life, but also one of the decisions I am the most proud of.
No, it won't say that any part of it's been easy. But nothing that’s worth it in life ever is.
