Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Life is a Roller Coaster

I got an email yesterday from my grandfather, he lives in Florida so we obviously don't see each other very often, so we email to keep in touch. He was my father's father. Typically when I write on here and I mention my "dad" I am talking about my step-dad, he is who raised me and I started calling him dad when I was 2 and never ever think of him as anything less than that.

My parents divorced when I was just a year old and while I had a relationship with my father it wasn't always an easy one. I loved him and he loved me, but whether due to distance or just not seeing eye to eye on things we had a lot of ups and downs. At the end of the day he was a good person who I loved more than words can describe and when he passed away of cancer when I was 17 I was devastated. I was sad about losing him, but I was even more sad for not getting the time to make up for all the ups and downs we had.

Well anyways.. back to my main point (sorry my mind trails off at times haha).. in my grandfather's email he was talking about all of those ups and downs in life. He has had a very interesting life (it could seriously be a lifetime movie) and he was saying that there are things everyone wishes they could take back or things they wish they could do again, but that's not reality. Life is a roller coaster. As cliche as it sounds you have to have learn to appreciate all of the ups and downs to really enjoy the ride.

Sometimes I think I forget that. I feel like I spend a lot of time worrying about the "downs" or wasting a lot of energy trying to reach the "ups" and not just letting things fall into place.

I would say that is probably my biggest weakness. I over analyze things or try to plan everything in my life, and the truth is you can't.

There is no way to know what tomorrow holds, you can drive yourself crazy trying to plan for it. In the end whether things work out perfectly or not, life is still going to go on. So instead of worrying about it so much, I need to learn to relax a little and kind of go with the flow. Be thankful for what I have, the family and friends who are always there, and just enjoy life.

It's a little late, but I think that should be my new years resolution: learning to just enjoy the ride.

2 comments:

Kelly said...

What a great lesson, Jenna! Sounds like the same principle of enjoying the journey, not the destination. I too WAY overanalyze stuff too :-( I am reminding myself alllll of the time that life really is fantastic and not as bad as I think. Uggg, one of my biggest faults as well! But the best part of life is that you can change, and I love your resolution!!

angela.kolachny said...

I think that's so great he wrote to you, sometimes life has a funny way of sneaking surprises to you. He is absolutely right about taking life as a journey. I always say life is like a map, you have to make your own paths.