As I reflect on this season of my life, wrapping up the summer, I find myself sitting in the stillness that follows a whirlwind. I chose to hold onto values that were not always easy to maintain, but deeply resonated with my heart: change and inner peace. These values seemed simple at first, yet I had no idea just how much they would be tested.
June came in like a storm—unpredictable, emotional, and relentless. The kind of month where it felt like every decision I made, every conversation I had, and every path I considered led to nothing but heightened emotions and tough choices. I thought I was in control, but life had other plans. It felt like a shit show—weeks of being tossed between uncertainty, heartache, and the weight of everything I was trying to juggle. It was the kind of emotional chaos that stripped away any illusion of certainty. There were tears, a lot of them, and moments where I felt like I couldn’t keep going. But through it all, I held onto one thing: I wanted change, and I wanted inner peace.
Looking back now, I see how the storms of June were a catalyst for the very things I longed for. I came face to face with the truth that change doesn’t always look the way we expect it to. It doesn’t come in neatly wrapped packages or with clear instructions on how to handle it. And inner peace? It wasn’t the absence of chaos—it was the ability to breathe through it, to stand still even when the world felt like it was spinning. These weren’t the ideals I had imagined; they didn’t come in the form I thought I needed. But in the end, they were exactly what I needed. The change I yearned for wasn’t a smooth transition but a series of tough decisions and moments of clarity forged through struggle. The peace I sought didn’t come from the silence I had envisioned but from the acceptance of life’s unpredictable flow.
I had a close friend tell me that my life has often seemed like a series of unfortunate events. Those words stung, not because they weren’t true but because they hit me harder than I expected. It made me pause, reflect, and feel the weight of all the pain I’ve carried along the way. Yes, there have been many hard times, and yes, it’s been a struggle to move through them with grace at times. But something in me shifted that day. Instead of letting the sorrow of those words pull me down, I started to see them differently. I saw the silver lining, however faint it was at first.
In the midst of hardship, I began to realize that the ability to find light in darkness is what has kept me going. And the silver lining? It’s the growth, the lessons, the resilience that emerges when we allow ourselves to feel, to process, and to move forward despite the odds. Life has not been easy, and it hasn’t always been fair, but I refuse to let it define me in the way others may see it. I choose to focus on the strength I’ve developed, the insights I’ve gained, and the sense of peace that’s quietly grown in my heart.
Sometimes, what we desire most isn’t what we get. But the beauty lies in understanding that what we need can be something different—a lesson, a shift, or a perspective that takes us to a place we didn’t expect but ultimately needed to go. June may have been a month of turbulence, but it’s also been a month of awakening. And as I stand here, looking forward to what’s next, I know that the values I’ve chosen to live by—change and inner peace—have already shaped the way I will move through the rest of this journey.
So yes, my life has had its challenges. But instead of letting those challenges break me, I choose to see them as the foundation for something greater. Through every tough moment, I’ve learned to trust that, even in the darkest times, the path I walk will always lead me toward the light.
