Swinging for an Invisible Ball

Everybody experiences it, that moment when suddenly, like a veil being pulled from your eyes, you realize you're no longer young and innocent. No longer can you get away with the little slip ups and social faux pas that seemed to colour our younger, simpler year. Suddenly we see the world through a new perspective, with expectations and responsibilty suddenly being thrust upon us, we shift our minds to acquiesce to these demands and lose ourselves in the hustle and bustle of our new "grown up" lives.

As we make it threw our tween years and finally through our teens, we begin to experience the realities of the world such as falling in love, true love, for the first time or perhaps getting getting fired from a job. Slowly we accumulate a new understanding and formulate a supply of knowledge we never had before, whether for better or worse. These brand new experiences, for those of us who actually have feelings and are in the least bit sensitive, are...well...scary. We spent the first half of our life "understanding the world", learning the rules of the land in a sense, and suddenly its ripped out from under us only to be replaced with a new set of rules and standards that are completely different from what we were accustomed to.

So what do you do? What happens when you wake up to a changed world? How do you deal? To be completely honest, even I don't know the answer to that question, after all, I'm trying to deal too. What I do know, however, is that taking on a negative approach to all of this change can only make things worse. When change rears it's sometimes ugly head, sometimes you need to just go with the flow and except it as a life lesson. This is the most important thing to remember: No matter how much you cry, get angry, and throw fits, life is still going to change; People, places, houses, names, cars...everything will change eventually during your life, you have no control over this. You can, however, choose to make the best of things and by doing that you are taking the lead in your life and you will be much happier and stress free.

Listen, I know what it feels like when you feel like you have no control of your life. Trust me, I'm living in Doha, Qatar right now, talk about letting go. Honestly, just hold on. Things don't stay "unbearable" forever and what you're going through, or at least what your feeling, has been experienced and weathered by someone else in the world.

How you feel...you are not alone.