How Life is a Little Like Falling Out of Bed

One time when I was young -- maybe somewhere between seven and ten -- I was spending the night at my best friend's house and fell out of her bed in my sleep. I woke up when I hit her wooden desk chair and subsequently began crying.

And I kept crying. But my best friend stayed sound asleep, and no one in her house woke up either. After about ten minutes, I realized no one was going to comfort me. I also realized I was a little sore, but not nearly in as much pain as when I first hit the sharp corners of the chair.

So I stood up, climbed back into bed, and fell asleep.

When I randomly remembered this today, I realized life is much the same way. There might not always be someone there to comfort you when you get knocked down, but you might not always need someone, either. It seems ridiculous to me now that for entire minutes that night I didn't even consider going back to bed until someone -- preferably an adult -- came to check on me.

There will always be things in life that knock us a little. Startle us. Disappoint us. Hurt us.

But the thing is, we get to decide how long those things keep us down. We get to decide what will be enough to get us back up. And as much as we want there to be, there might not always be someone to swoop in and say, "you're fine," or "keep going," or "you can do it." Sometimes we have to say those things to ourselves.

I think it's very easy to let ourselves believe that things are happening to us, without giving ourselves enough credit for what we do about it. It's a silly example, sure, but falling out of the bed that night happened to me. I chose not to spend the rest of the night crying about it on the ground.

It seems so simple now. The key is remembering how to make that decision each time something pushes me down. Something worse. Something with a bit more force.

You're fine. Keep going. You can do it. You can do it.  Everyone, whatever it is. You can do it. Just stand up.