Luck, fate, chance, opportunity. All similar things. What I’ve learned is that if we rethink or reframe things, our luck is a lot better than we may realize.
Bad luck is getting diagnosed with breast cancer while 23 weeks pregnant. Good luck is I was able to get into treatment quickly, could undergo chemo because I was in my second trimester and this was detected quicker than it may have been had I not been pregnant.
Bad luck is losing your job simply because you’re out battling cancer while pregnant. Good luck is getting a less stressful job that is less physical, does not involve on call work and allows you to work from home a lot.
Bad luck is taking awhile to find somebody to spend the rest of your life with. Good luck is the time alone allowed me extra time to spend with family specifically my mom who I lost way too early to cancer. That extra time with her is something I am so grateful for that I may not have had, had I met someone sooner.
Bad luck is not having family available to watch your kids while you work. Good luck is this has allowed my kids to adapt to different people and not be afraid to be away from me and my husband. They have done school and activities with no problem because they are not with us all day and have had several sitters care for them over the years.
Bad luck is having to figure out how to reopen two facilities during a pandemic and being one of the only people working on site on campus every day for almost a year. Good luck is this made me not afraid to go out and go places during the pandemic, I was able to get the vaccine early and it made me realize if I could do that successfully I could do almost anything including return to work after a year battling cancer and not just return but adjust to a new position and the loss of my old job.
Bad luck is missing out on connecting with your partner while in college and not getting into a relationship until years later. Good luck is meeting later in life allowed us to both know what we want out of a relationship and be ready to become serious quicker than we may have when younger.
Bad luck is missing out on a lot socially when younger due to being involved in many sports. Good luck is this extensive involvement helped teach me time management and prepared me for the hectic life of having five kids in 7 years.
Bad luck is having to miss out on almost two years of normalcy with young kids due to a pandemic. Good luck is with four kids, they were able to play and interact with each other at a time many could not. We grew closer as a family because of this.
Bad luck is getting a stress fracture in one leg then getting one in the other leg while the original fracture still isn’t healed and missing an entire year of running: cross country and track while in college. Good luck is missing that much time made me more driven and determined and I ran the faster I ever had when I finally got healthy. I learned quality over quantity with my mileage and training and became a smarter runner when I returned from injury.
Bad luck is realizing when you’re doing your half day student teaching in college that you don’t want to teach the subject you’re majoring in and want to change what you’re doing. Good luck is I realized this before I started working and was able to change my major and switch to exercise science which was a better fit and gave me more options with my job. The education background I got helped me teach classes while working in the athletic department at MCCC.
Bad luck is going away to a college and realizing it wasn’t the right fit for you and having to transfer and take an extra year of classes because of this. Good luck is I knew TCNJ had exactly what I was looking for and I was able to get a great education, run for a very good program and have a wonderful experience even though I stayed close to home.
I could go on and on but by now you get the point. As I started writing this more and more experiences in my life came to mind. I am luckier than I realized. Reframing things that didn’t work out or were difficult to go through made me realize I am more than just lucky, I’m very lucky.
Fate, opportunity and luck are all similar. They are what lead us to where we are. Sometimes things work out for us and other times they don’t. But as I heard one college basketball coach say recently when watching conference tournaments “every loss is an opportunity to learn and grow.” And this is so true.
Are there things I wish hadn’t happened in my life? Absolutely. I wish I never had cancer. I wish my mom was still alive. I wish we never went through a pandemic.
But I can’t change these things. What I can change is how I view them. Each circumstance we are faced with is an opportunity, a chance, fate and we have to make the most of it, even when these opportunities, chances or fate are crappy or bad. These are opportunities to grow and learn and come out stronger. Had these things not happened I may not be as lucky as I am.
So on this St. Patrick’s Day I think of all the luck I’ve had, good and bad. It’s made me the person I am. I do believe in fate and that things happen for a reason. But I also believe fate is what we make of the circumstances we are faced with. We can make ourselves as unlucky or lucky as we want. It’s all in how we view it. And I’m one lucky girl, not just on St. Patrick’s Day but every day of the year.
#luck #fate #goodluck #badluck #reframe #breastcancer #breastcancersurvivor #pregnantwithcancer #momoffive #onetoughmother
