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Hahaha - so as I was searching for a related image to post with this blog post I came upon this beauty. It doesn't really apply but I just had to post it anyway. This guy looks totally creepy. Why is this a picture? For what purpose was this taken?? haha Hopefully he's not the grandpa to anyone who is reading this.
Anyways, I’ve had a ton of thoughts in my head the past month, but wanted to really give more time and deliberation to a specific thought that’s been floating in my mind - which is why it has taken me so long to finally post something!
One thing that I’ve realized as I've had more and more life experiences, and as I’m sure most everyone else has realized (if not you will eventually) is that our perceptions and our expectations don’t always equal reality.
For anyone that has seen the move “500 Days of Summer” you can picture that scene where the move goes split screen and it shows the same event – but on the left side of the screen it displays reality – the way the event actually takes place, and on the right side of the screen it shows the main character’s expectations of the event. Not too surprisingly, the two sides of the screen were very different. At the time, it seemed depressing! His heart was crushed because his expectations were so far off from what actually happened. Can anyone relate to this? I sure can. But my point that I am going to try and make is that although the situation may not turn out the way we thought we wanted it to, or the way we expected it to…perhaps the way it actually turns out is just as good, or even BETTER. Maybe we focus far too much on the fact that it is different than our expectations to realize that just because it is different doesn’t mean that it is not as good. Sometimes we are way too fixated on the way we think it is supposed to be or the way we think something is supposed to happen that we miss the boat entirely.
A really great quote that I remember hearing in high school goes something like this, “When one door closes, another opens, but we often stare so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”
Never focus on the fact that the door you wanted to open might not be the one that opens. Try to feel the breeze coming from another open door and explore that option. Don’t miss other opportunities because we are way too fixated on the one that might not be happening. So many times the new route in life is an even better route for you – as long as you take advantage of it and not let yourself dwell on the fact that it’s not the path you originally chose. Life is never a set course. There are going to bumps and sharp turns caused by external forces that we can’t control! Constantly recharting our course is a necessity in life to deal with these external factors. And this is a good thing because it allows us to explore opportunities that we otherwise might’ve never known existed.
In the end of the movie “500 Days of Summer,” it eludes to the fact that happiness was found in a different place than the boy in the movie was looking. The end of the story wasn’t the way he had thought it would go, but regardless, it was happy and things were good. Once he finally realized that what he had his mind set on didn’t have to be his only option he found happiness! So if the door you’ve been doing everything you can do to open seems to be glued shut, remember that there isn’t only one way to happiness. Just try not to open the door with the old guy behind it. Things could get scary.
