Dear future little one,

My mom always told me “when life gets hard you can either laugh or you can cry, and I’d much rather laugh”. I think she got that from Marjorie Hinckley when she said “The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. … Crying gives me a headache.”

Kyle and I have this saying, whenever something doesn’t go according to plan, to help us change our perspective a bit. When we get lost and lose cell service so the GPS cuts out, “It’ll be an adventure!” When we have 3 different places to be all at once, “It’ll be an adventure”. When we don’t have the energy to do one more thing, but we have a project, a presentation, and an essay all due tomorrow morning, “It’ll be an adventure!”.

Our Adventurous Weekend

It’s so easy for me to get frustrated when things don’t go according to plan. I love (and actually crave) having and sticking to a schedule. Change just stresses me out! On our trip this weekend up to Park City our kayak rental fell through. Then our hotel beds felt like ROCKS. And then I got a migraine which sapped me of a lot of the strength we would’ve used for fun activities. And I just wanted to cry. And cry. And not stop. But Kyle looked at me and laughed saying, “Hey, it’ll be an adventure! Choose to laugh.” And it was. And we were. We ended up doing totally different things than we had planned, but we ended up having a BLAST!

The Takeaway

Whether it’s planning a vacation, applying to medical school, or just making sure your family is functioning on a day to day basis, life never goes according to plan. People bail on you, plans fall through, you get lost, you lose motivation. Life is hard and plans changes, even when (or especially when) we don’t want them to. Yes, it’s sad. Yes, it hurts. And yes, you’re allowed be upset and frustrated and just MAD that life is crazy and hard and unpredictable. Those feelings are incredibly valid.

But you have to be able to laugh.

The hard parts don’t stop coming. They just don’t. Life really isn’t easy, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. Choose to laugh! Choose to not be overwhelmed. Choose a positive attitude. When things start to fall apart, take a breath, roll your eyes if you have to, and choose to make it an adventure!

Love Always,

Sara