Seize And Be Seized By The Nature Of The Thrill And The Rest Will Follow
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Seize And Be Seized By The Nature Of The Thrill And The Rest Will Follow

There is so much undeniable beauty and love and delight in this world. Enjoy it.

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Seize And Be Seized By The Nature Of The Thrill And The Rest Will Follow
Christina Ausley

As the semester comes to a close I find myself reflecting upon all of the people, places, and things that have combined these past few months to make them some of the greatest times of my life. I feel compelled to write not only in reflection, but in gratitude for all life has offered this past semester.

I’ve chosen to write about "the nature of the thrill” because if there is one thing I have very quickly and deeply come to understand this semester, it’s that life is going to throw you a series of incredibly unexpected challenges and prosperities.

You wake up, and maybe the day will teach you to never park illegally unless you want to pay an $80 ticket. Maybe you’ll learn how to cook or raise your hand for a new leadership position. Maybe it’ll teach you how to challenge yourself academically, perhaps emotionally, even mentally. Maybe the day will provide a new friendship, a lifelong friendship with an individual that, by the grace of God, was positioned in the exact same place at the exact same time as you by some act of fate.

You might get out of bed, experience the day, experience the people around you, experience the things around you, and come to some kind of profound conclusion about yourself or even life, in general, that will undoubtedly carry with you for the rest of your life.

The most important part about this, however, is that each and every challenge, prosperity, or understanding is completely unexpected, yet completely at the will of our actions.

This semester has very profoundly and acutely taught me that there is something so incredibly special and thrilling about the unexpected nature of each day we are lucky enough to wake to.

Maybe that’s cliché, maybe it has been said a million times before, but how often is it we truly recognize the encounters we receive and how much power these encounters truly have over the outcome of our lives?

Now don’t get me wrong, we also experience a lot of pain and confusion in what some days offer. We wake up, we receive some news or experience some kind of heartbreak, we hurt, we watch people we love hurt, and sometimes it simply seems as though the world is uncontrollably spiraling out of control. We question purpose, intentions, and reasoning for the things we go through or those around us go through. We read the news and, at least for me, occasionally become overwhelmed by the amount of pain and trouble this tumultuous world encounters.

This past semester has certainly provided me with a series of challenges or hurt or confusion that I still have yet to understand and may never fully understand. What I find even more profound, however, are the series of experiences that have deeply opened my eyes to what lies beyond the trial, in the nature of the thrill.

There was something so very special and fervent about the spontaneous camping trips and sunsets on the beach with friends, the thirteen-mile day hike to the top of LeConte in the smoky mountains. There was something so keen in singing along with one of my favorite bands for a concert in the pouring rain, and viewing the city of Chicago from the 95th floor of the John Hancock building. There was something so simply wonderful about impulsively exploring Birmingham, and experiencing the artistic cuisine of Philadelphia with my older sister.

Most of all, though, there was a very powerful joy in sitting around a table with my family on Thanksgiving day. Never have I been so grateful for a group of people who have individually guided me through life in very different and unique ways. I am forever appreciative of all you have done for me.

The point is, every experience and more importantly every understanding I achieved of the world was mostly if not completely unplanned. The same is applicable to every individual in our world.

This is the nature and the beauty of the thrill.

You wake up and maybe the day will be incredibly challenging or maybe the day will be incredibly joyful. What is most important, however, is that both of these days provide equally profound results. Sometimes it will be more clear in some moments rather than others, but you cannot doubt the amount of knowledge and understanding you gain from both days.

Assuming you take each and every encounter as a key to your success, and each and every person as some kind of teacher, the world is never going to stop providing you with opportunities to seize and lessons to learn, I can guarantee you that.

We have absolutely no clue what or who we will face tomorrow. Hell, we don’t have much of a clue for the next hour. The thrill is constant, and we must never attempt to plan or change the thrill or the entire concept loses purpose.

What we can do and what I have learned most in the past semester is this—

Regardless of the day we face, we can profoundly seize the emotions and encounters we experience. Not only must we seize that which is provided to us, we must also allow ourselves to be seized by the experience. A uniquely beautiful symbiotic relationship exists between both our actions in a given moment and our allowance to be completely swept up and consumed by that given moment. The moment may be sad, it may be joyful, it may be full of laughter or tears or just plain chaos.

Simply put, there is so much undeniable beauty and love and delight in this world and I find it downright incredible we get to be here experiencing it all.

Seize and be seized by the nature of the thrill, and I promise you the rest will fall into place.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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