Shake it Off

Shake it off. Let it go. Take it one down. Turn it around. Don't worry about it. Forget it.
If there were one thing I wish I could teach myself at 15, this would be it. As one of my most brilliant dance teachers used to tell us over and over, "It is what it is." This may sound really simple and obvious at first, but think about it. No matter how hard we try, we can't control everything. And we've got to stop trying, because that's not what life's about. Life is not about being perfect and never letting anything go wrong. Trust me - it doesn't work. Life's not about never letting anyone see you cry. Because as much as it might feel like you're falling apart and everyone is watching, they don't have it all figured out either. Every single person on this earth has something they are struggling with. It sounds super cliche, but everybody falls down. I know- that doesn't make it hurt less. That doesn't make it ok. But at some point or another, you have to let go. You have to accept that YOU AREN'T PERFECT, and you're not going to be. AND THAT'S OK. You don't need to be perfect, or else why would we need a Savior? Why would we need the Atonement? He doesn't expect perfection. He just wants us to try. And often when you try, you fail. That is what life is all about. No one goes through life without making mistakes. No one goes through even one day without making some small mistake. That's what makes us human. Another thing that makes us human, although sometimes it sucks, is the fact that things don't always go our way, and we have to deal with that. One thing I absolutely cannot stand is when people give up before they start. Just because something bad happens, doesn't mean you can't do anything about it. It's ok to feel sad. It's ok to feel scared and alone. Sometimes, we all do. But it's not ok to stay that way and expect it to get better. There is always, always something you can do, and nothing changes without cause. Your life is your choice. It will be what it will be, but you get a choice on how to react and grow from it. Stop worrying so much about other people's opinions. Stop sweating what you can't control. Take it for what it is, don't over-complicate it or sugarcoat it. It is what it is, ugly as it may be. You can't control life, but you CAN control you. So when something happens that sucks, deal with it. No, seriously, look it right in the eye, figure out what you can do about it, and do it. Sometimes, you have to get the emotional block out of the way to see it better, so it's ok to cry first. It's ok to feel awful sometimes, as long as the next morning you pick yourself up and make a change. I can't tell you how many times I have had to do this in the last month alone. It's been a rough one. But I won't go into detail about the many things that went wrong, because you know what? I cry. I hurt. But then I turn my favorite song on repeat (Bad Day by Daniel Powter) and go to bed. The next morning, it still hurts. But I make a conscious decision to do what I can to make it better, and then just accept that life's not perfect. I do what I can, and then I say, "It is what it is." I don't dwell on the rough spots. I recognize them and I try my best to get around them, but then I look at all the great stuff. This month, I got a concussion. But guess what? It happened when my mom was there to help. My sister lives 40 minutes away. My teachers all agreed to work with me and give me the time I needed to catch up. Friends helped me with homework. A lot went wrong, but a lot went right, too. God helped me through the worst and the best. He blessed me with understanding teachers and friends. He helped my head heal. He gave me everything I needed to make it through alright. So you know what? I'm not going to keep asking, "Why did I have to get a concussion??" I'm going to say, "Ok. This is what happened. It is what it is. It's not going to change because I wish it would. It's gonna be hard. But I can take it one day at a time. I can ask for help. I can do my best, and that's all I can do. So that's going to have to be enough." And sometimes it wasn't enough. There were a few nights I just didn't get everything done. There were a few times I had to miss out on stuff. But I decided to let it go. Shake it off.

   As I said, my favorite song in the whole world is Bad Day by Daniel Powter, and it has been since it came out in 2005. The reason I love this song is because it lets me cry. It lets me know that it's ok to have a bad day. It happens. But it also tells me, "It'll be ok. It'll pass. It's not gonna be here forever. It's only a bad day." And that is the one thing that gets me through. Because life is good. It's just a bad day. It's not a bad life.