Understanding the "Why"...

These past few weeks I have been grappling with understanding the why. The ‘why’ in why certain things happen, the ‘why’ in situations or moments that may not seem clear, the ‘why’ in what made us make a decision. In reflecting on some of these thoughts, it reminded me of many moments in graduate school where I scratched my head or cried in frustration or disappointment.

During that period of your life as a student, you will be asking yourself about the ‘why’ more times than you think. For instance, when you spend weeks on a research topic or experiment, only to realize the results are not what you expected, you will wonder why the universe made you waste your time. This is just one of the number of situations that we spend our time on, cursing the universe – whether it be a disagreement with our advisor or the overwhelming feeling of having too much on our plate. So what do we do or what do we need to understand the ‘why’? Short answer: We shouldn’t try to understand.

Instead, we should think about what’s next, the path forward. How do we course correct? We spend so much time focused on the wrong things that happen, that we forget sometimes that the worst aches and pains happen right before the end of the race. We have to remember that the negative instances are only temporary but it is all dependent on our outlook. It’s about telling ourselves, that it is just our Act 2, a temporary pit stop to a grand finale. I had to remind myself of that these past couple weeks as I kept trying to understand all the ‘whys’  from the unfortunate events happening.

Today I am reminding you, Act 2 may beat us down, but for Act 3, it will be a glory road to success. Don’t give up before Act 3 comes around!

xoxo