Dear Stranger,

I have heard of hardships as wide as a whale, and as small as a mouse. I have watched people struggle over serious problems and exaggerated problems. Some of them yell and scream, while others cry and mourn. I have not seen many who search for the lights when everything seems dark. These few don’t mourn or yell. They keep their eyes ahead, find the light, hold on to the light, and move forward a changed person. I concentrate on this idea as I find myself being forced to create a new home for myself. I wasn’t happy about this prospect, but at the same I wasn’t unhappy about it. I was mostly indifferent about this situation. I was happy for the future, but also scared of the road ahead. However, I needed more certainty, more friends, and more excitement in my life. Despite the chaos of the future, I centered myself on these needs. Still the stress of this event creeps back like a hunter pursuing its prey. When you hear that hunter chasing you down, you must always remember that you are more powerful than the hunter, but only if you can keep your eyes ahead, find your light, hold on to it, and move forward changed forever,  because of that light. 

The first step is always to push past the madness and continue forward. The method I use for this is called ignoring the stress and focusing on the positives. If you focus too much on all of the craziness you will just get stressed and nothing will get much better. In my own experience when I focus on the stress I find it hard to move forward. There are many ways to distract yourself from the stress of any situation. In my example, I focused on the new opportunities that could be provided with a new school and a new community. If I focus on these benefits rather than the stress of getting to them I can push forward to the possibility of brighter days in the future.

The second step is to find a path and concentrate on it. Focusing on the positive allows you to see a path forward. Usually this path includes helping those who are going through the same thing as you. In my case these people were my family. You can help them with moving furniture, tubs, and other items into trailers and trunks. If you concentrate on helping others with the same problem it allows you to find ways to move forward through your own problems. Helping others also gives you enjoyment because you are building new memories together. Working together through a problem also allows you to not feel alone in your struggle. I always found that it is harder to solve problems alone. If you solve them with others you can use their input on the problem to help you move forward. These ideas allow us to learn from the experience and move forward. 

  The final step is learning from the experience and using those ideas to help you out next time you encounter a problem. Problems are not all bad, because you can learn from the experience. This knowledge allows you to solve other problems quicker when you encounter them. Solving problems is not the only idea here, you also need to learn from them. So that you don’t run into the same problem again, and so you can apply new strategies to other problems that you might have. I learned to always stay positive in the face of darkness. There is always a rainbow at the end of the storm. As long as you focus on the rainbow you will get through the storm. After taking all these steps you can finally move forward, until life ultimately brings you another problem to solve. 

The most important thing to remember is to keep moving forward because a problem is like a monster chasing you down without losing energy until you defeat it. You have to keep going no matter how big the problem seems. While I was thinking of this experience I was reminded of a song from one of the theater productions I did recently. It is from Seussical Jr. and it is called: “It’s Possible”. One of the main lines in the song is “ It’s Possible, Anything’s Possible,”. It reminds me that a problem always looks impossible until it is solved. It reminds me that it is possible to solve the problem no matter what because anything is possible. 

Sincerely, 

Mr. Mayor