Ever since I’ve been little, I have been taught not to act irrationally.

I’ve been taught not to act with my emotions whenever my feelings have been hurt, or things are not going my way. Acting with our emotions in stressful situations can get ugly, and can normally result in your words feeling like toothpaste, impossible to take back.

I never really gave this lesson much thought until I became older. I realized that through all my experiences, my reactions define how people see me, and the way I handle things shape me as an individual. If my heart gets broken or if I get in an argument, a “grace period” is a beautiful thing. The pause that takes place in between the circumstance, whether it be a boy, a breakup, a girl, an ugly text, what have you is your time to think about how you can handle a situation with grace and class rather than emotions and hurtful words.

Snowballing off of this, recently, my life has involved a lot of pauses, and sometimes lack thereof. While some situations I would have handled differently than others, so I warn you: a pause can be so powerful. Pause before you speak, before you act, before you text, and a variety of other things.

The way you react to situations and words speak volumes about your character and your heart.