The End of the World

On The Safest Ledge - Copeland

So, I've been thinking about life a lot lately (I say that as if it's a new development). I've been in a funky mood the past few days, and, as usual, I have tried to psychoanalyze myself. I feel like I've been doing a lot of psychoanalysis in these past few days. As you know from my previous expository posts, I have been in a genuinely good mood pretty much non-stop for the past 3 months. Lately though, I feel like it's wearing off. Maybe it's the arrival of winter. Or the darkness and the bitter cold. But anyway, that's not really the point right now. The point is that I've been thinking about life, and people, and the way people handle situations, and the way I handle situations compared to other people. So you know, complicated stuff. haha.
This is what I've realized: I used to (in middle/high school) get really stressed out about a lot of little stuff. I treated everything like the end of the world. I cried a lot over a lot of totally petty stuff. I overreacted and over-dramatized (probably not a word, but I just made it one), and basically, I was a teenage girl. Most of the time, there has absolutely no justification for my extreme emotional turmoil, but I convinced myself there was.

I think that last year was probably the first time in my life when I actually had any type of justification for my feelings. My life was totally changing, a lot was happening, and so yeah, I think I had a right to be a little bit of a wreck emotionally. But I made it through, I came out on the other side, and I like to think that I'm a better person for it. The biggest thing I have learned from that experience, and just from life experience in general, is that nothing is the end of the world. With the exception of nuclear fallout, nothing that happens is going to cause the world to end. So, yeah, (pardon my French) shit happens. But life goes on. Not to be cliche, but this planet we live on is not our home. Our lives are just specks on the time line of eternity. Our time here is too short to get worked up over every little thing that doesn't turn out the way we wanted. And in reality, even the things we feel went "wrong" are part of God's plan for us. And when you have that perspective, it seems just a bit ridiculous to be upset about anything. Because He knows what we need way more than we ever could.

I'm not trying to say you should never get upset. Of course I still have times when I get disappointed about stuff. But I then I remember that I am not ultimately the one in charge of my life. And so if God wants to take something away from me, or give me something different than what I wanted, there's really nothing I can do about that. I know that this concept is hard for some people to grasp. It's hard to hand over the controls. But the truth is, we were never in control to begin with. So we might as well embrace it because there's no use in ignoring it.

So, that's my philosophy. I like to call it the it's-not-the-end-of-the-world-it's-God's-plan philosophy, or INTEOTWIGPP. If it doesn't work for you, I understand. I still have my over-dramatizing tendencies, and I understand what a hard habit it is to kick. But I encourage you to give it a try, because it's totally liberating.

I feel like I need a cool catch-phrase to wrap up my posts. Like on Glee: "and that's how Sue...sees it." Any ideas?