Lesson #11: You don't always get what you deserve.

This has been my "learned it the hard way lesson" of my semester. I know that many times throughout my life I have received many blessings that are much greater than what I deserve. But sadly, this thing works both ways. Sometimes in life, you can feel that you deserve better things than the ones that are coming your way. I have been feeling like this lately. I'm still blessed, and the problems I have are nothing compared to most people but still, I feel like I need to let it out.

What is bothering me the most is that some of my problems could have been avoided if someone else had decided to put me in a different situation. Somehow I felt betrayed because I thought that because I am good student, I don’t deserve to go through all the trouble they've put me through. Sometimes professors put good students in the worst situations because they think they will be able to manage it best. I think that if it isn't going to benefit the student in any way, this is just an unfair punishment.

Anyway, I know this doesn’t happen only in school, everyone has to go through unfairness in all life stages and scenarios.  What I’ve realized today is that if I want to be happy, I have to stop thinking that I deserve better and start moving forward with what I got.

Maybe God lets us go through this so we don’t get spoiled thinking we deserve it all. I have faith that He is hoping I learn important lessons from this, and that’s what I’m trying to do.

Lesson #10: Wars also destroy souls

Since I'm working with veterans as part of one of my rotations, I have been hearing a lot of war stories lately. I don't want to say much though, because I know it might be a sensitive topic.  I'm just going to say that after hearing first-hand what these people have gone through, I admire them just for being there working to get their life back together after a very de-humanizing experience. Even if their bodies are unharmed, their souls are wounded forever. "After this, I would never be able to be the same person", a man said to me after about half an hour of telling me his very detailed story. I didn’t know what to say, I couldn’t do nothing else but validate his feelings and give him my undivided attention. My respects to those that, having no other option, had to sacrifice their physical and mental wellbeing to support their families.