Life is full of tests, trials, hardships, and barriers. Sometimes it seems like they all happen at once. Do you ever find yourself asking, “Why me?” Or trying to figure out what the point of all your tribulation is? In my last semester of grad school I was having one of those weeks, when everything seemed to be going wrong. It was during midterms, and on top of all of my papers and exams, my blood sugar was also acting up. One night it would be high all night, and the next night it was low. My husband heard all about my grief–I was stressed out, tired, and frustrated that I had to deal with diabetes problems on top of all the regular stressors in my life.
At school, during a break, one of my friends was talking with me about the licensing exam we’d both recently passed, and about the job I’d accepted. It hit me in that conversation how fortunate I was to be in grad school, done with the licensing exam, and to already have a job. Yes I was very busy with school and my internship, and yes my health was on the roller coaster side of stability. And a lot of other things were also going very right for me. It made me think of something I read in Randy Pausch’s book, The Last Lecture. He wrote, “Brick walls are there for a reason. And once you get over them–even if someone has practically had to throw you over–it can be helpful to others to tell them how you did it.”
Now, on the whole, doing grad school for social work is an emotional journey–you try spending a couple years learning about mental health and not figuring out some pretty deep stuff about yourself. I learned a lot about myself, and how to use that information to relate to and empathize with people. During that difficult week, though, I started thinking about how I could share some of the lessons I’ve learned, like bodies just suck sometimes, and just because your body has problems doesn’t mean your life is a problem.
I would like to invite you to do the same. Chances are if you’re reading this blog, you’ve dealt with some difficult things in your life. Honestly, if you’ve been alive for more than a few years, chances are pretty good that you’ve dealt with some difficult things. What did you learn from those experiences? How can you be a mentor or a guide to someone going through something equally difficult? Life has taught you a lot, and has therefore given you some valuable lessons to be shared. Everything isn’t about you anymore when you use it to benefit someone else.
