We all have a plan in life as we grow up.

When we’re little we have this idea of what we want to be when we grow up. We think about being a police officer, a famous singer, the president, and many other things. Sometimes we even dream of things that are absolutely impossible, but no one ever stops us from dreaming. As we grow up we begin to realize some of these dreams aren’t really reality. Life throws that curveball at us and we begin to reconsider.

We begin to really start planning our life as we being to get older and things become more real. We begin to plan things like where we will go to college, who we will marry, where we will work in the future, where we will live, who we will be friends with forever and many more things. We dream and imagine and fantasies. We thrive on these and make our whole live circle around these dreams.

How many times have your dreams gone the exact way you’ve expected it….?

Life has this crazy way of changing everything we plan. Nothing ever goes exactly as planned. Life throws us curve balls all the time… and we just need to learn how to swing.

Personally, I am a person that will roughly plan things and just go with the flow, but I have friends that plan every detail to the minute and when life throws that ball, they don’t know how to react.

It’s okay to dream, dreaming is good! It’s a wonderful thing to have something to work towards and strive for but what we really need to learn is how to react when we get that curveball.

When the curveball hits your plate, it isn’t the ball that creates the outcome…. Its how we react. It’s if we swing at the ball or we just let it strike us out. Take every opportunity to swing, if you miss at these you tried.

Next time you plan something, and life gives you a pitch, take it. Own it. This could be that ball that changes your life. Every curveball that is thrown your way, is sent your way because they know you can handle it.

Life threw me a curve ball right before graduation. My dream has always been to teach where I grew up. I never wanted to leave my hometown. I dreamed of staying close to my family but…. Life gave me that curveball with an unbelievably good teaching position. I took the swing and hit the opportunity. Choosing to swing was hard but It has made my goal of being a special education teacher a reality.

Taking the swing is a scary thing but in the end, it changes you. The opportunities that are pitched your way will change your life! Sometimes the changes are good and sometimes it helps us figure out what we don’t like….. but either way it changes us. We don’t want to just let the ball go by us. We want to embrace everything we can. Life is about chances and opportunities and life constantly if providing them.

Next time life throws you a curve ball…… Swing! It's not about the ball being thrown, it's about how we respond.