I had a rough 2017.  It started off with my husband almost dying from the Influenza A and Sepsis in January.   It didn’t get better when in July, a tenant destroyed my rental house, which costed $15,000 worth of damages and getting new property managers due to this incident.  Around the same time, I had crazy neighbors calling the city on me regarding the weeds on a piece of land I owned.  As a result, the city threatening to fine me over the next two months $700 and $1300 since the weeds could not be over 1 inch. In September, I fell on my face and hit the sidewalk.  I looked terrible, but luckily I didn’t have any major damage and my teeth were intact.  Finally, an old friend who I treated and helped her out like a sister went crazy when I tried to reconnect when we lost touch. I’m not sharing this so you will feel sorry for me. Although it was a crazy year, all these events showed me that I have far more resilience than I thought I had. 

Through these experiences, I’ve learned through tough times is when we grow the most as people.  It’s uncomfortable as we go through the process, but somehow it makes us a better person.   We realize that we are much stronger than we thought. I’m not saying there weren’t times I wanted to cry, lay in the fetal position or not get up. But you have to push forward to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 When I was younger, I thought God was punishing me and that’s why bad things were happening to me.   I used to bargain with God that if he just fixed my situation, I would follow through with my promise. I realized the only one who could fix my situation was me and sometimes I had to go to the eye of the storm to get to the other side.

I know now it’s not because God is punishing me that these things are happening.  Life constantly changes and sometimes we get curveballs.  At times, it pushes us out of our comfort zone.  Most people don’t like change and I see it a lot being in Human Resources.  If you embrace change instead of fighting it, things go much better.

When I went through my year, I didn’t have time to complain or cry about it, I accepted it and moved forward.   That acceptance allowed me to move through the pain much quicker, which allowed me to deal with the other stuff that was coming down the pipeline. Life is sometimes going to knock us down.  Take a deep breath, brush yourself off and get up again, accept and move forward.