I’ve come to realize that not everything is what it seems. It’s not always easy, it’s not always pretty and it’s not always fun. But that’s what’s exhilarating about it all, isn’t it? If it’s not easy, we learn about endurance. If it’s not pretty, we learn to be grateful. If it’s not fun we learn to change it for the better. Endurance, to be grateful, and to understand change are such vital and important aspects of life. It’s like going through the bad to reach the good, spending time on earth before entering heaven…trial and error, shooting for the moon and missing. Failure isn’t the end of what we’re trying; it’s the beginning of something new, that could be better than what we ever had imagined. We’ve just got to give that possibility a chance before disqualifying it in our own minds. We’ve got to love without being loved in return to truly understand the significance of what love is. We have to understand what it is to be broken, before being made whole by the One who created us. We can question and ask why all that we please; when it comes down to it, “why?” is a constant pause. We have to continue; keep on keeping on so to speak. It’s ok to be angry, it’s ok to be mad, it’s ok to cry. IT’S OK TO FEEL, because feeling those emotions is what reminds us that we’re still here. We’re still breathing and alive and we’re still worth it. We’ve got to stick up for ourselves, which doesn’t mean always mean immediately reacting. Most of the time, it means stepping back, assessing the situation and saying how you feel. It’s time for us to be BOLD in what we believe, to love enough, to encourage enough, to FIND happiness in every direction; because it’s there, we’re just not always looking. We have to remember we can’t expect others to change if we, in turn aren’t willing to change ourselves. When we leave this place, life goes on. We have to leave our legacy and leave it to benefit those who come after us. It’s worth it, we’re worth it, and they’re worth it. Every decision counts.

-aer