As I was sitting in class the other day, something my professor said seemed to stick in my mind. “Don’t let life control you, control your life; make things happen and don’t wait for things to happen to you.”

My journalism advisers often say many things that make a lot of sense. It’s as if I looked up into the black sky filled with huge clouds that resemble smoke, but when I look up again, all I can see is how the sun is magically appearing in the blue sky.

Another important piece of advice I’ve been told to keep in mind are the three things to have in life in order for a person to be happy.

The first is to have good health, because you need to be alive to live life.

The second is to do something you love, which makes you happy, allowing you to love yourself.

Last, but not least it is to find someone who loves you, which is easy once you’ve learned how to love yourself.

Another important thing is, when you do something you love, the money will follow. Enjoying what you do makes it easy to find ways to make money, something so many of us strive for.

Doing something one loves usually makes people feel happy, thus the result: they’re the richest person on earth.

These words of wisdom sometimes help me get through the day, especially when I feel like it will never end or when I feel so busy I just want to roll over like a dog and play dead.

Being in college sometimes feels like a bag is put over your head and you’re just about to suffocate. Many of us feel this way when problems in life consume us. I just take a deep breath and realize if I can make it through the day how much stronger I’ve become.

Most of us have also heard of having a mid-life crisis and a quarter-life crisis, which sometimes comes a little earlier than expected.

We all struggle to know who we are at these instances, which sometimes cause severe stress. Unfortunately, life isn’t that easy where it lays the answers out for us. We have to work a little harder.

As a part of discovering who we are, some try to find their limits or boundaries. People usually live on their side of the fence, building their limits too close around them. They do this so no one can cross the fence and get inside, meaning it’s their way or the highway.

Then there are those who build their fence too far away, and others who don’t know where their boundaries are. This often makes other’s feel used, hurt and insecure.

For me, finding that middle ground has always been difficult to define when it comes to those I deeply care about.

Another part of life that can be exciting and difficult is the process of growing up.

People usually know they’re getting older when friends start getting married or start to move out. Other signs are when a person’s heart has been broken or people they care about have died.

As people get older, either they are more sure of what their goals in life are or greater confusion sets in. I feel a bit of both. To get through the tough times, I try to think of what I do have and not what I don’t or what I will have one day.

I’m not exactly sure what I’m trying to say, but I do know in writing this, I just hope to offer someone out there a a piece of understanding.

A lot of things in life can never be explained, so I wanted one person out there who reads this to know that I feel this way too at times.