So often in our daily lives, we become obsessed with planning. We have our days planned, down to the hour and minute of each day. We know when the last possible second is that we can wait to until we have to leave to get to class. We know what time we need to be out of our door and in the car in order to make it to our desk before our boss walks into the office. We know just exactly how much our friends can take of us complaining about life before they will snap. Unfortunately (or fortunately for some) life is so calculated. There is no room for something unexpected to happen. There is no room for change to occur. However, just because we don’t invite it into our life, doesn’t mean it doesn’t come knocking on our door.

Against all odds, things happen in life that we can’t control. There are those events, like death, natural disaster, and people forming opinions that unfortunately, we cannot control. No matter how much you do or how much you try to gain control of these situations, nothing could ever help you gain control. You can spend all your time attempting to gain control over something that is uncontrollable, or you can spend your time putting energy into those things that you can control.

At some point, this is something that we all need to realize. It will happen at different times for all of us. Some of us will wake up one morning with this realization, while others will fall to the ground and only be able to get up after making this realization. Whatever the case may be each one of us will realize that so many parts of our lives are not in our control. So many times, we will all find ourselves in situations that have to run their course, and it is just something that we have to accept. Although this realization may be very challenging to accept, time will tell that it is okay to not be in full control. It is okay to let life happen and to be a passenger. This idea is looked down upon. We are told to “grab life and run” and “in order to succeed you must be in the drivers seat of life” but this is simply not true. One does not need to be in full control in order to be successful. One needs to be able to accept those things that he or she cannot change, and learn from them. One needs to be able to realize that there are some situations that happen, not because we wanted them to or deserve it, but just because that is the nature of life.

Life is precious and although it is scary that we can’t control everything about it, it is the truth. Allow life to happen and everything will fall into place. After all, “everything will be okay in the end, and if it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”