Choose to Take the Journey

I once dated a girl whose emotions were as wild as the ocean.  They were turbulent, fickle, uncontrollable, unpredictable.  And I loved her for it… just not initially.

She was the kind of girl who showed up at your doorstep unannounced one night.  And the following day, she would unexpectedly cut you out of her life.  She broke up with me countless times for reasons I may never quite understand.  I loved her though, so I didn’t let her go so easily.  As long as my life ran smoothly, which it usually did, I found myself growing fond of her mercurial temperament.

One weekend, our lives took a sudden nosedive off a cliff.  I won’t go into detail, but suffice it to say, losing our respective jobs would be the very least of our worries.  I didn’t sleep at night so I had to sneak in 20 minute naps at work to maintain my sanity.  My ocean girl went ballistic because I appeared indifferent to her, while I began to resent her for her incessant demands.

With every swing of her emotions, mine followed.  With every instance she yelled at me, I yelled back.  With each insult, I fired one back in return.  Tensions escalated to the brink, and I was literally inches away from losing it.  Not only were we going to break up, but I was also going to go off the deep end.  I was ready to give up, shut myself in my room, and just pass out for a few days.

We met up one night and something unexpected happened.  She took one look at my weary face, and suddenly calmed down.  She became as stoic as a rock.  Realizing I was at my limit, she made a promise to support me through my ordeal first.  With that, my mind went blank and I slept through the night for the first time that week.

I woke up the next morning with guilt in my heart.  I saw then that it wasn’t that she was incapable of being the strong one; it’s just that it went against her nature.  In order for her to remain my ocean girl, I was the one who needed to be stronger.  I had to become her rock, the shore break against which her emotional tides would finally find peace.  This promise, I made to her.

Six torturous weeks passed and we survived in one piece, but our close call made me realize something important.  I had just enough inside of me to make it through.  If I were to face a greater threat to my wellbeing in the future, I could never again shy away from the present.

Sometimes life will throw you a vicious curveball.  You may feel like giving up.  You may want to cry out at the top of your lungs.  But you shouldn’t.  You mustn’t lose control.  You have to master your emotions in order to master your destiny.  So you will take on the challenges of today.  You will welcome them.  Embrace them.  In turn, they will grant you the skills, the confidence, and the emotional fortitude to weather the storms of tomorrow.