Jayden H.
Photography by Olivia Karczewski
If you’re reading this, you will get out of life whatever you are supposed to.
The other day, my mom sent me a text saying that you can never lose something that’s meant for you, and that you can never hold on to something that’s not. Life will come as it comes. And even if we want something really bad for us, or we think that this is our fate, it might not be. I have learned that clinging to ideas and goals can hold us back from where we are actually supposed to be.
Have goals. Have ideas. Have dreams. But we also have to recognize that we will not always get everything that we want. But that’s okay, because we will always end up with exactly what we need. My whole life, I have struggled with control. I constantly feel that if I just hold a little tighter, I will be able to control my life perfectly and everything will go exactly as I planned it. However, as I grow and learn, I’ve realized that life does not work out in the ways that we want. We have to let go of the past in order to experience the future we are supposed to have.
Life isn’t supposed to be easy. Life won’t hold our hand across the street. People will leave, we will lose things, and we might not always succeed. But these losses are lessons, and recognizing that helps us become who we are meant to be. We have to protect ourselves and what we hold dear, but we also have to be able to let go and take the risk in order to get the reward. You might not end up exactly where you thought you would, but that does not mean you’re not where you were supposed to be.
It is worth it to survive. You are worth it. And even if you do not know when or where you’ll end up, I can promise that the hardships are lessons that will allow you to grow. At the end of the day, we are all living for the first time, and none of us have perfected it. I know that trying to live perfectly has held me back from living freely. Letting go is hard, and it’s scary, and it may make you want to cry. But in the end, we start living when we learn to let life run its course.
You will figure it out. Life will work out for you. And you will get out of life whatever you’re supposed to.
Jayden H., West Chester University
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