When the world is spinning around you, and you can’t catch your breath: who do you run to? Is it your mom, best friend, a hero from a novel, or faith that is your safe haven?

No matter what stage of life, there will always be moments of terror or despair; however, those rainy days are the ones that allow for rainbows. Independence is a wonderful and accomplished achievement, but the ups and downs of living aren’t intended to be experienced alone. Parents give us the tools we need to find ourselves, whether or not the lessons were hard or not is kind of irrelevant.

People say, “The ends defeat the means”, and this ideal has a different connotation to different people, but in this case, I gain the peace that even the parents who probably shouldn’t have been parents give you the one and only thing you need to find yourself: a chance. A chance by being born, a chance by doing the best they can at that moment.

Now, in my personal relation, my mom was and is everything to me. She is my home, the safe place that is always welcoming and steadfast as I leave again each time. My dad is a man with no biological relation to me, but he instilled sects of traits into my personality throughout his time in my life. The other half of my genetic make-up is a man who has done the best he can. Sadly, his best wasn’t good enough for me, so I created my own family because life is meant to be experienced in community.

I have never been one that had a best friend, until now. We knew each other for months that have felt like lifetimes, and when stubbornness is keeping me from moving forward, she picks me up to move me herself. Because sometimes when the rain is pouring in buckets from the sky you need someone to dance to the beat of your own drums with.

My memories are shared by characters more real to me than the stranger walking past me on the street. Elizabeth Bennet, America Singer and Liesel Meminger: just to name a few, are the people who taught me that it was OK to dream big and impossible wishes and that with enough determination, you can get pretty dang close. Their experiences taught me how easily hopes change and that it is OK to dream a new dream. Their trials and tribulations were wake up calls I ran to when I needed a bit of perspective. Because in life you can’t live it all, so why not learn from the imagination of author after author?

The consistency of life’s uncertainty can be a bit daunting and overwhelming at times, so the same amount of consistency in faith balances out the fear of the unknown with peace and acceptance that sometimes circumstances are beyond our control. Life is a crazy beautiful thing that no one should have to enjoy alone. There is a vast difference between loneliness and a nomadic lifestyle. Find your community whether filled with the spirits of the world or the people of the world.