By Heidi Hess
Life is a series of beginnings and ends. Endings and beginnings. I’m pretty sure that’s some sort of Doctor Who mumbo-jumbo. He talks about that sort of stuff all of the time but there’s truth to that statement.
The past few months have been the end of a lot of things. I was happy to see some things go. We struggle and try our best and sometimes our best isn’t good enough. We all have these things happen to us in real-time. Sometimes they are complicated and other times it’s as simple as returning a dress we bought on Amazon because it didn’t fit. I’m not gonna lie. Letting go of that Halara dress in Salsa Red with the built-in shorts was tough. I had such high expectations, but alas, it didn’t stretch in the right places and then stretched in the wrong places, if that makes any sense. Was it my fault? No. The dress, and a lot of other things, weren’t made/meant for me. The disappointment that comes with things not working out is really difficult. There’s a mourning. A real sadness. I sat there on TikTok watching the ads for that dress and thought “I’m going to look great in that dress!” Flash forward to trying the actual dress on…it was a hard no.
I’m using a small example to illustrate my point but you get the picture. Apply that to bigger things. When they don’t work out, are we less? Should we feel bad? Nope. Not even a little.
This is a lesson I wish I could go back and teach my younger self. I can’t time travel (I lack a portal, wormhole, or TARDIS) but I can make sure my kids know this hard-learned lesson. Society encourages us to try things, and to make mistakes, but when things don’t work out, are we kind to ourselves? Do we pat ourselves on the back and say “Good Try”? Not usually.
My daughter is graduating high school. This is an ending and a beginning at the same time. I’m trying to teach her to take chances. Anything worth having is a risk and if things don’t pan out the way you thought they would, smile. Give yourself some grace. Perhaps we should take pride not in having things work, out but take pride just in trying.
And Lord knows I tried… but the red spandex said no.
