I was talking to a friend the other day trying to explain how we are always changing as humans. This is a hard idea for some people to grasp, and in this article I am going to try to put it into my own words.

I believe that we all go through our own experiences and hardships for a reason. We may never know the reason which can be frustrating, but there is always a reason bigger than us.

Throughout my life, I have faced different challenges that made me who I am today. For example, when I was in middle school I was diagnosed with Dysautonomia, which is a chronic pain disorder. Going through this experience, I learned many life lessons that ultimately made me grow up fast.

This experience helped me in middle and high school because I felt like I already had years of knowledge shoved into my teenage brain. For example, I went to a pain rehab center in Minnesota for a month where I was the youngest kid in the program. The curriculum was set for older students and I was constantly around older kids which taught me to be mature.

Another important thing I learned in Minnesota is to hide my pain. I am in chronic pain everyday and no one would ever know (except maybe my mother) because I choose to be a happy person. I believe I learned this lesson because I need to be happy for others and make their lives a little easier with my kindness.

Whatever experiences you may go through in your life happen or a reason. Just because I learned something that was forced upon me, does not mean everyone has to know what I had to learn. Everyone learns at their own pace.

No matter what age you are, I believe we are aol still learning new things and growing in ourselves. Death can teach patience and gratitude, breakups can teach healing and forgiveness, and so on.

One tip that I use is to give myself two days to grieve about whatever happened in my life. After those two days are over, I push those feelings aside and move on to how I can improve my life. Obviously those feelings aren't going to disappear right away, but I deal with them everyday and choose to be happy.

When we have a bad experience, the answer is not to shut down and blame the world. The key is to learn from your hardships.