I found this quote several months ago, and I decided to make it my personal goal. If there's anything that I've learned from living in Flagstaff, it's that I can't always control how things go in my life, but I can choose how to react to them.
I can't control when I have three group projects due the week before finals.
I can't control my apartment management being so difficult that my roommates and I have spent the last two months dealing with them while finding a new place.
I can't control the attitude's of my friends that don't like Flagstaff as much as I do and are counting the days until they get to leave.
Control is an interesting word. It holds so much power to it. There's little room for leeway or discussion. It's absolute.
But you know what word holds as much or more power? Choice. The ability for us to make our own decisions and carve our own path. That is true power. It's the mastery of oneself. Not because life is meticulously planned out and controlled, but because we have the power to define ourselves by the things that we can't change. To bloom where we're planted. A sunflower looks beautiful regardless of where it grows.
Choice is a personal thing.
I can choose to turn to my savoir for help when I feel overwhelmed with crazy classes and crazier teachers.
I can choose to see the experience of moving as an opportunity to step out on my own and grow as an adult.
I can choose to support my friends in their decisions, even if it means sacrificing some of my selfishness when I lose them.
At the end of the day, it's good to accept the fact that there are a lot of variables that can't be controlled in life. Darn you life for being hard and confusing. Darn you for trying to teach me that I don't always run the show. Darn you for attempting to get something through my thick skull.
But thanks for being worth it.
