The Roller Coaster of LIfe

Some people have such high expectations of themselves.  Sometimes we think our families have much higher expectations of us than they really do.  Sometimes we feel like we can never live up to theirs, or our own expectations, and as a consequence, we can make life choices in a panic.  

At 17 years of age, I dropped out of school halfway through year 11.   Within five months I'd convinced my parents to let me leave home and move into a unit with a girlfriend from school.   Three months down the track,  I was engaged to be married and pregnant with my first child.  Within a year of leaving school, I was married with a baby.

My life seemed to be speeding out of control!  Within six years I'd had four children and a dozen different addresses in two states.  I felt like there was no way to take a breath and find some control.  Life seemed to have taken control of me and I just went with the flow.  The current got stronger and stronger and just before I was swept away to oblivion, I grabbed a branch and pulled myself free.

You would expect that by grabbing that branch, it would give me the opportunity to take stock of my life and re-evaluate.  Make some hard decisions and set myself a new path to a great future.  

Unfortunately, some of us, like me,  have to learn the hard way.  It took a few more years, but I did eventually take stock and make some better decisions for myself and my family.  Even at the age of 50 I don't always get it right.  I have a few regrets about the choices I made along the way, but I like the person who I have become, and I know that I have more lessons to learn yet.

Life is an adventure for us all.  We make mistakes.  We make bad choices.  We fall down and we get back up again.  Admittedly, some of us make more mistakes than others, but that's how we learn.  That is,  hopefully, how we become better human beings. 

As long as we learn from our mistakes, every new path that we take, gets a little less bumpy.  Every mistake that we make, builds our character and hopefully gives us empathy for others.  It hopefully erases character flaws and gives us new character traits like empathy, sympathy, humility and tolerance.

I have spent the afternoon offering the above advice to two young people.  One of them is less than 20 yrs of age and the other is less than 30, yet both consider themselves to be a failure already.  

There are lots of inspirational quotes out there that hold value, but basically you can take the good with the bad, learn from your mistakes and enjoy the roller coaster of life!  

"Drive into your future looking at the open road ahead rather than into the rear-view mirror of your past."

- Jonathan Lockwood Hule

"Any change, any loss, does not make us victims. Others can shake you, surprise you, disappoint you, but they can't prevent you from acting, from taking the situation you're presented with and moving on. No matter where you are in life, no matter what your situation, you can always do something. You always have a choice and the choice can be power."

- Blaine Lee

Old Japanese Proverb:

Fall seven times, stand up eight.

"Today is the first day of the rest of your life"

- Charles E Dederich