By Lauren Rauseo
What I’ve learned throughout my 21 years on this Earth is that water never tastes as good when the glass is half empty. Perhaps it’s easy to tell someone to stay positive. People say “keep trying!” when it feels you’ve failed. I won’t tell you that the sun is always out if you’re looking (but it’s true). I won’t tell you that there won’t be pain in life -- that would be a lie -- but I will tell you that pain is temporary.
All you can really do is learn how to swim.
On March 18, 2024, I got in a tragic bike accident and barely came out with my life. I don’t expect you to know what it feels like to wake up in an international hospital with no recollection of why half your skull is out of your head, you have no ability to walk, or why your arm is in a sling, but I had one choice: to sink or to swim.
In that moment, I knew my mentality had to change. I couldn’t think of the past. After all, I couldn’t even remember the accident (the brain has a funny way of dealing with trauma). I had two options: forget about going back to France, accept my reality, move forward, and focus on healing, or cry my eyes out, because I got on a bike without a helmet and ruined the rest of my semester abroad. I chose to move forward.
From then on, I decided to cling to positivity, and I’m not sure I would be where I am in recovery today if I hadn’t.
Life isn’t easy, it never will be. In moments where you least expect it, you might not be able to walk, or you won’t get the job you’ve been hoping for. Life might just feel hopeless. In that moment, you must learn how to swim.
People or life’s circumstances are always going to try and tear you down. Sink or swim.
Maybe you won’t get the job, or you’ll fumble the interview you had been prepping for. Sink or swim.
The truth is, once you learn how to swim, and you can look in the mirror and know how strong you really are, those people and those circumstances fade into the background. In that moment, all that is left is the future and what you believe you can bring to the table.
Learn how to swim. Be your own life jacket, and no matter how rough the waters are, you’ll never truly sink.
You don’t have to be Michael Phelps -- take it from me -- I worked at a waterpark for two years and my skillset doesn’t exceed basic doggy paddle. It doesn’t matter. Sink or swim.
You can’t control all that happens to you, you can only control how you react. Life is unpredictable. You can’t control the tragedies that happen to you or around you. If you roll with the punches, life will become so much easier to get through.
With this, I suppose I’ll leave it up to you. But take it from me, life is so much better once you learn how to swim.
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