How many stages do you actually have to go through for you to say you have really accepted something that happened to you? Something that involves pain, struggle, and confusion? Any emotion that you can think of that would correlate to something that affected you in a way that kills you… Because acceptance is never a singular thing, and probably that’s the reason why it’s so difficult to deal with.

Life doesn’t hand you out a manual on how to face hardship. It’s like throwing a baby out to sea to teach it how to swim.

There is no better teacher than experience, and because of this, all I’ve got are thoughts on to deal with life. I’ve got a lot of solutions that easily play in my head when something bad happens, but the difficulty lies in trying to be a person that doesn’t break in the process towards acceptance.

Acceptance also means humility and courage—humility to admit that you are in a bad place, and courage to go on and not give up.

Acceptance comes with anger, disappointment, fear, anxiety… That’s the reason why the path to acceptance takes some time… Well a lot of time…

Acceptance means differently to every person. To me it means getting a grip on this family set-up, finishing our thesis with integrity, realizing you have to grow up, taking on responsibilities… This can go on you know, how much time you got?

How many stages do you actually have to go through for you to say you have really accepted something that happened to you? Something that involves pain, struggle, and confusion? Any emotion that you can think of that would correlate to something that affected you in a way that kills you… Because acceptance is never a singular thing, it comes with many other, things… I know how stupid and ambiguous that sounds, but probably that’s the reason why it’s so difficult to deal with. And what I mean by stupid and ambiguous is that acceptance works when you lose, when you succumb, when you give-up. It’s stupid. Sometimes. But that’s the way it works.

(Source: aproblemlikemaria)

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s yours to keep for the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, “life.”
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately “work.”
4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There’s no part of life that doesn’t contain its lessons. If you’re alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6. “There” is no better a place than “here.” When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.”
7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tool and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life’s questions lie within you. All you have to do is look.
10. You will forget all this.

(Source: aproblemlikemaria)

I am expecting to see more of these lovely ladies this summer~

Earlier today, I got a text from a friend. I thought it was her usual group text updates and greetings. And yes, it was. She sent it at half past two in the morning. She never sleeps, maybe barely. Here’s what she said:

“Hellooo, so I’ve been so scared since December and it’s Feb already. I’m wondering how it got this worse. I had no idea that fear can crawl into your system and eat you up. Nevertheless, the most important thing is to face this fear, even though you think you wouldn’t even stand a chance. Here’s to the people who think they can’t muster anymore courage to battle life’s challenges. If you’re scared, then it means you’re onto something important. If you can’t take the risk, then what the hell are you doing?

And yes this is the Starbucks talking. I’m so awake. Good morning girls! Go get energized!”

Yeah, she could have seemed high for advising us to get energized at 2:30 in the morning. But everything she said was absolutely true. It made me miss her even more.