Let life happen.

Sometimes the best things in life start unfolding the second you stop trying so hard.

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I was too tired last night to brush my hair when I got out of the shower. I went to bed with some extremely tangled hair. I can’t even describe how messy it looked when I woke up.

I got my hair damp, quickly brushed through it and drove Char into work. I just got back to the house and looked in the mirror and couldn’t believe how good my hair looked.

Most girls can probably relate. Like when you toss your hair up in a messy bun before bed and it’s seriously the best messy bun of your life. But it never looks that good when you are going out for drinks or hanging out with the cute guy you like. Nope. Just right before you brush your teeth and you’re about to crawl into bed for the night.

Sometimes the best things in life happen when you stop trying. Seriously, this relates to my life currently— on a deeper level than just my curly, messy hair.

If I’m being honest, I would say one of my biggest flaws is feeling like I need to know the outcome of every situation. Ideally, I would like to think that I know what I’m doing in six months, even six years. I tend to think I can take control of my life and make a plan that will work itself out seamlessly.

Lately I feel like life has a different plan for me. I’m slowly starting to realize that sometimes you have absolutely no control of what life has in store for you. If I constantly keep trying to plan every single detail of my life, I might just miss out on something amazing because I’m trying so hard to steer myself down an invisible path I have drawn out.

I’m trying to just let life happen right now and enjoy every moment along the way. I think that by accepting not every situation will work out the exact way I plan but finding ways that I can grow during the process will really help me enjoy the journey. Which is what it’s all about right?

We’ve all heard it a thousand times. It’s not about the outcome it’s about the process. That’s where my focus is right now. Realizing that I can grow from every situation I encounter and letting life take its course and take me where I need to go.

Think back for a second to those moments that shouldn’t have happened but did. I’m not sure where I stand with my belief that everything happens for a reason and life is all about timing, but maybe it really is.

I was just talking with my best friend about how I was so thankful our paths crossed back in elementary school. However, it took some drastic events to occur to get me to that school.

My parents had just split, and I know now that my mom was dealing with the hardest divorce of her lifetime. Life was messy. We moved across the state and I started attending a new school where I knew nobody and lived in a new house that I’d have to call home. Honestly it felt like my life was flipped upside down.

But I’ll never forget meeting my best friend Emily. We laugh as she recalls the exact outfit I was wearing. I’m not sure if I was trying to hide from everyone or stand out like a sore thumb, but I had on a camouflaged jacket with matching camo pants, (those pants would probably be in style now, so no laughing) as if I wasn’t stylish enough, I also had the most embarrassing glasses on. Despite the hideous outfit, a huge gap-toothed smile stretched across my face when she introduced herself and the rest is pretty much history.

Anyway, I’m rambling; but looking back now, kind of feels like everything happened exactly like it was supposed to. Even though it really didn’t feel like it at the time.

Sometimes you must let go of what you think should happen in order to let what is really supposed to happen to happen. My goodness, now many times can I say happen in one sentence.

I’m trying to accept that I won’t have control over everything in my life, but I can control how I react to everything that happens in my life. And right now, I’m choosing to have fun, and enjoy these wild moments. These unexpected friendships, these out too late, one too many kind of nights, these long fourteen hour shifts with incredible people.

If you had asked me three years ago where I saw myself in the future; I can guarantee I wouldn’t have said working on the coast of Maine. But here I am, happier than ever learning more about myself and more about life than I ever thought I would.

Life is wild sometimes; but I’m ready to let go and let things happen for a change and just see where it takes me. Who’s in? Cheers to a fun summer full of memories and I guess we will see where I end up in a few months when it’s all over. The freeness of that idea gives me a new excitement I haven’t felt before; not until I realized how nice it is to just let life happen.