While attending a lecture a few weeks ago, I was presented with the idea of "patchwork people" and it really stuck with me. As human beings, we truly are our experiences. Every little thing that happens to us, whether it seems significant or not, makes us who we are. Each experience is a piece of fabric that when sewn together makes us into these quilt-like people that we come to be. We are influenced by our surroundings, other people, etc. whether or not we want to be.

I feel that for my age, I have experienced a lot. Yes, I have a whole lot of life ahead of me and there are a billion things I still need to learn and truly experience, some things that will only come with time and age, but all in all, I feel like I have lived my life rather fully. I have taken chances, gotten involved, been hurt, overcame some really difficult scenarios, and have fallen in love with being alive. Honestly, if I were to die today, hopefully not, but if I something happened and I were to, I would be pretty content with where I stand in life. All because of my experiences, and the way I let them shape me into who I now am.

Although we may not have complete 100% control over the experiences/people who influence us, we can control how we interpret these situations, and the attitude we handle them with has a large impact on how these experiences form us. We do not always get a say on who comes into our lives, or who walks out of our lives, but regardless, these people help to make us who we are. With the right mindset, those who have hurt us end up making us stronger and better able to handle future adversity. Those who bring positivity into our lives help us to be brighter and happier people, and every experience in between changes us in some way or another.

We are a combination of everything that happens to us. One bad experience (or even many), no matter how awful it may make us feel is not going to ruin us, just as one great experience is not going to necessarily going to transform our lives into something fantastic. We don't have all the answers, and often times life does seem to be a big, unanswered question. However, it's about piecing together the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, in a way that gives our lives meaning and makes it worth living.