“When I grow up, I want to be a doctor! A firefighter! A teacher! An astronaut! A ballerina!” All the kids yelled out with excitement, when the teacher asked what everyone wanted to be when they grew up! Now, those very same kids are all grown up, sitting in a staff meeting, wearing stuffy business suits, drinking coffee and thinking “this definitely could've been sent in an email”. What happened to those excited little kids from a couple of sentences ago? There's a four-letter word that I think explains what happened perfectly; LIFE! That's right folks I said it… LIFE can be something else! Now life is different for everyone, we may share similar experiences, but our responses and the affects these experiences have on an individual are usually different. This isn't going to be some sad story about how life threw a bunch of lemons at someone and knocked them out! Nope, this story is about collecting those lemons & making delicious lemonade! Of course, I'm not really going to talk about making lemonade! Take a minute and think... when the teacher asked you in elementary school, what you wanted to be when you grew up, what did you yell out? I said I wanted to be a doctor, because I wanted to help people! There I was, five-years-old and I already had life all figured out, or so I thought. If I could give five-year-old me some advice, it would be: grab a helmet, knee & elbow pads cause this ride is gonna get rough! So, here we are folks, it's senior year! Adrenaline was pumping, nerves were I don't know nervy I guess (lol). I was excited and ready to walk across that stage, down the steps, through the parking lot and into adulthood! PUMP THE BREAKS MISSY! That's me yelling at myself! Why were we so eager to “grow up” to become “adults”? How come the adults didn't warn us about… oh wait, okay…that's what all that “Don't rush it, before you know it, you'll be an adult” chatter was all about! Mm, I see now. I don't know about you but I would've preferred a breakdown, like I tell kids all the time specifically why they shouldn't rush being an adult! Like how they should take advantage of naps because they're not included at work. How about these pieces of paper you get in the mail that list out stuff you've purchased or used and at the very bottom, are some numbers that are behind a dollar sign…. These papers are called “Bills”! I can't believe I almost forgot to mention the most terrifying part of adulting… there's a place you go to for about eight hours out of your day (maybe more it depends) and you do tasks (some you might like and others you may not) … this place we call “Work”! So, enjoy being five while you can, because it doesn't last forever! I just needed to get that off my chest! Now back to my education timeline. Here we are, and its college graduation time woo hoo!! Finally, I can be done with all this school stuff, get a career, make lots of money and be happy! But that's not quite how it went for me! Remember in the beginning when I said life is different for everyone? Well, it's true! Some of my school friends graduated, got their degrees, their dream job and they are living life. While others I graduated with, have a couple of degrees in different fields, started off in what they thought was their dream job and realized none of that was what they really wanted. Then there were some who said forget college, they mastered a skill/craft, found their passion and either work at a job they love, or they have their own business. You see life is truly what you make it! It's like a game of cards, we're all dealt different hands BUT at some point, we all have/had similar cards, it's what we choose to do with them that results in the outcome of our lives. And I believe the only time it's too late for change, is when we're sleeping eternally! Some of you are probably saying, “ok what's your point?” And that is an excellent question! When I first started writing this, I wasn't sure which way I was going with this story. I just knew that I wanted to be able to encourage someone to get up and say “you know what, life threw a hell of a lot of lemons at me and now it's time for me to make some lemonade!” I know I said I wasn't going to talk about lemons and lemonade but I couldn't help it!! Here's my “real” conclusion, where I bring everything, I talked about altogether! Most of us dream when we're little and sometimes those dreams fade away as we get older, but it's never too late to fulfill those dreams! We've all been given life but live it differently. Some of us know what we want right out of high school, while others of us find our way a little bit later in life. Some people take life's lemons and complain about how sour they are, while other's make lemonade. Now it's time for you to decide… what will YOU do with the lemons in your LIFE?! ~Tiffany Renee~