I was in a night out with friends when I was sharing stories and playing “victim” again over a problem I was facing.
Suddenly, my friend said, “Parang narinig ko na yan, ganyan din problema mo dati e.”
It hit me.
I had the same problem, in two or three different situations, different environments and circumstances.. but what was common among those was one thing.. me.
I realized, “OMG, hindi kaya ako na yung problema?”
It hurt realizing that. I may be thinking my problem is always another person, my situation, my environment, my many frustrations, when in fact, amidst all the complaints, I was the only common denominator.
Then, the problem must be me.
But why?? Why me?
That can’t be true.
I look back on all these situations as an “outsider” to see what may have led to these problems and realize it was because of my attitude, and my perspective.
Sometimes, or often, life gives us the most sour of lemons, lemons that are so annoyingly frustrating that it leaves you complaining all the time.
What we don’t see is that our “lemons” are mere grapes to someone else, that can be sour, but also sweet.
Often, our lemons are not really lemony-sour, we just think they are, because we are so caught up in self-preservation, never looking at what we are doing wrong, but always on the watch out of what others are doing wrong.
In the end, we have to admit that challenges are inevitable, people pass by our lives whom we don’t really like, situations frustrate us, and our plans may not necessarily materialize all the time.
But what we can control is our mindset, our attitude, and our perspective.
That no matter what “bad” comes our way, the bad may not always be that bad, it may just be neutral moments that test our resolve and mature us into individuals we need to be.
We just need to have the confidence to accept that, more often than not, it’s all really.. just about me.
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Image: https oxbridgeessays.com/blog/complete-guide-to-writing-a-reflective-essay/
A Hyphenated Life 