when life gives you lemons....you deal with it.

As I turned in my advertising final on Thursday morning I thought the stress of winter semester was finally over. I had fulfilled a majority of my responsibilities and was only left with a few more that wouldn't take too long.

I quickly learned that more responsibility was coming my way because other people decided to not fulfill theirs. I'm not going to go into detail or name names. I'll leave it at this: me, and a few other people had to pick up a lot of slack due to the choices of others.

But I want to focus on some thoughts that have been running through my head during the process. When did it become OK to totally tap out on all other responsibilities just because there is some stress coming from another part of your life? When is it OK to dump everything else on someone else just because you're at one stage of life and they aren't? Who are we to judge that we are in a more fragile state of mind just because someone isn't experiencing the same thing that we are? Don't you dare tell me that you are more stressed or more worried or more whatever, and that therefore you have less responsibility than me just because there's one event in your life and a different event in my life. And I'll do the same.

When did we forget about responsibility and agency? The right to CHOOSE. The right to dictate the choices we make?

Now I'm not saying that life doesn't get hard. I know it does. I've experienced it first hand and I've seen it in the life of others. But what I am saying is that no matter how hard life gets, you can always rise above. And you can rise above gracefully and not let anything get you down.

Helaman, a prophet from the Book of Mormon teaches his sons...

And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Can't the same apply to us?

YES.

It can. I know it can.

When life gets stressful, when life hands you lemons, you make it work! You don't ignore other aspects. You solider on and rise triumphant.

You can look back and say...

"WOW!"

"Look how hard life was! Look at all the different things that were pulling for my attention and look how much I accomplished!"