The Craziness of Real Life

I realized last night that had I known how difficult my life would be at age 21 that I would have killed myself at that age. But the paradox is I would have then missed the most amazing life I have ever heard of: my own.

Life can be simultaneously so incredibly wonderful and terrible at the same time that one might just say, "My God. I can't deal with the intensities of life!" And then they might end their lives.

But, my experience is that if you do that often you miss the very most amazing and best parts of your life.

I think maybe just realizing that life is about 1000 times more intense at times than any one of us expect might be the most useful thing to say. And that most of us underestimate what we can stand to go through and still be relatively okay. And strangely enough, you have to be able to withstand both incredibly good experiences (like falling in love and the birth of your child or children) to being able to withstand best friends dying and parents and relatives and friends dying unexpectedly and having to go on in your life without them. If you can't withstand this sort of thing you won't be around anyway.

But, if you can withstand both the extremely good and the extremely difficult things in your life, then your life can be truly amazing and worth living and worth waiting for. But remember, you have to go out and make it happen. Most of the time life doesn't come to you, you have to make whatever you want or need to happen in your own life. So, if you want a life you have to go out and make it happen.

Nothing ventured nothing gained.