I've been drowning in the seas of adulthood, lately. I haven't been caring for my vessel like I should and I've been letting the sting of salt water redden my eyes, bitter my mouth, and dry my skin. What a foolish captain to cast blame on water when a journey goes sour; especially when it is I that was steering all along.

When I set my sails on teaching as a career path, I knew the voyage would not be easy nor would it lead to treasure chests of gold or future additions in a history book. I knew I would not own a port to stir envy in any of my rivals nor would anything be named after me. The treasures I had and have my eyes set on are my shipmates. History books serve as our compasses to help us master navigating towards a better future. If I help my shipmates redirect to stay the course, then I can say I have discovered gold. To see them learn how to navigate in the ocean of this life is what I treasure most.

Lately, I've been drowning. While I've been working harder than ever, it just seems I can't keep my head above water. Adulting is an ocean. Its waves have been coming in surprising and unexpected directions, crashing into my vessel so tremendously that it's been difficult to stay afloat. It seems as soon as I patch up one hole, there is another just spouting water onto the deck, mocking me. To make matters worse, there I am on my hands and knees trying to make repairs to stay the course, when a vulture named Mary Fallin continues to fly overhead, pooping all over me and my shipmates. Despite the old superstition, bird poop does not bring good luck and most certainly does not bring riches of any kind. Well, except for the bird. The bird gets plenty of riches. It just takes from those it pooped on. Oh wait, we never had riches... because we chose to sail a path towards a better future; not monetary gain.

Remember what I said about that salt water getting into my mouth and souring my path?

While I've been working harder than ever, I am making less money thanks to the vultures that keeps circling over me. Sorry, salt water again. This weekend while I was working at a second job, I could feel myself growing more and more angry. I just felt discouraged. I felt shipwrecked.

Luckily, some of my anchors convinced me to take a break and just stop sailing for a moment. They convinced me to just stop moving and repairing and instead, spend some time with them to love, laugh, and not to cast my gaze upwards or downwards, but inward and outward.

My head had been down, working so hard to patch holes, that I forgot how beautiful the view from inside and outside of my deck really is.

Not only am I surrounded by magical, extraordinary shipmates, but the anchors in my life truly do keep me rooted when the waves seem to pull me off course.

There will always be vultures waiting to poop on me and along my path. There will always be unexpected tsunamis looking to swallow me up in the ocean of adulting. I say, bring it.

Bring all the poop and salt water you've got. Neither will stop me from being so wildly in love with this vessel and this course. I can't control the tides, but I can control how my ship and shipmates treat one another. I can control how we weather the storms of this life.

My vessel isn't perfect. In fact, I've got a lot of work to patch up some of the wreckage I've allowed in apathy. A stress-eating attack brought on by a wave of donuts has caused quite a few blemishes... But as I look into the mirror and out at my view, I can't help but smile and be so in love.

This is my ocean and I am the captain.

Let's weather this.