I have always been a planner. I start my days with a mental outline. I then know everything I need to get done for the day, and most of the time, I stick almost perfectly to that schedule. Unfortunately for me and my type A personality, this is not a perfect world, and things happen.
This week was one of those weeks.
Instead of attending my 9:30 on Tuesday, I found myself driving to the dentist in a city where I don’t even have a dentist. Driving in a car that didn’t even belong to me.
And then the next day after a full day of class, I made my way to another dentist, 25 minutes away, still driving a car that didn’t belong to me.
Not exactly the day I had planned for.
In life we are unable to plan for unfortunate circumstances. However, it is arguably more important that what defines us more than what happens is instead how we react to it.
When things go wrong, more times than not, we would much rather scream and complain and wish the problem away. But once again, life doesn’t work this way. We often have to do things that make us uncomfortable in order to fix the problem and get things together. Life doesn’t wait around for us to get comfortable again.
Being on your own for the first time makes this phenomenon of things going awry a bit more complicated. Growing up, when things went wrong, I was always able to call my parents, and they usually came to my rescue. A forgotten lunch, a 24 hour stomach bug, a freak accident— they were a phone call away and were always able to help me figure things out.
Granted, they are still only a phone call away. But now, it is unrealistic to have them rescuing me when we live over eight hours away from each other. So, this time, I was on my own.
This is not the first time things haven’t gone the way I wanted them to, and I am sure it won’t be the last (although I wish it was). Life keeps us on our toes, and every once in awhile there’s a curveball.
Although stressful in the moment, I now have the knowledge that I can do things on my own. I may not be able to do everything yet, but I know that I am gaining life experience and independence. Two massively important lessons for anyone, but especially for college students trying this whole “being independent” thing for the first time.
Being on the other side of a stressful situation is liberating. You have the ability to look back and realize all you accomplished and how much you grew from a situation that challenged you and forced you to become uncomfortable.
More times than not, things work out. As long as you put in the effort, things almost always fall into place. Sometimes it takes a little time and a little patience, but in the end, you are better for it.