Ageing, Agency and Adversity

 

In this fallen world each day that comes is another painful day of decisions and choices. Another day determining what is right and what is wrong. All kinds of decisions to make – ‘What should I eat for breakfast?’...’what should I wear today?’...’how can I get through this hopeless, endless dark hole of a life?’.

We are born. As babies we are: fed, washed, clothed. We didn’t need to worry about making choices. We could just cry as loud as our lungs would let us and hey presto an adult appeared to give us exactly what we needed. In fact all throughout most of our school years life was a fairly easy ride. The trickiest decision we had to decide was who we were going to hang out with during lunch break.

Then, those teenage years arrive and suddenly everything changes. Now your a teenager everything drastically becomes important. You have to fit in. The world becomes this big place where things  happen so rapidly and spontaneously, you realize you no longer have shelter. All you want to do is stay on the right track and not get lost.

I have realized that throughout life making wrong decisions are inevitable. The world is full of bad things, bad people, bad lifestyles – drugs, alcohol, violence, pornography etc. Sometimes no matter how many good choices we make we can still end up in bad situations. As someone who lived in numerous foster placements and a children’s home I know first hand how the adversary can take hold of your life and try to break you down into a thousand tiny pieces.

Looking at statistics there will always be a link between bad situations and broken people. That is where we have to decide actually, I want to be an anomaly. Dysfunctional families, addictions, death, divorce – these are the kind of things that break people in these latter days but they don’t have to be.  Light always outshines darkness. If we have hope than we can overcome any obstacle, any trial. Hope for good things to come, nothing is forever. We are all unique and talented and all needed to make up this ever changing world. We can learn from all the bad things that happen to make a better future.

Growing up is a blessing that not everyone gets. The transformation into adulthood will always be hard but I think we just need to remember that we are not alone and that if we stay strong and endure all the tribulations that get thrown our way we will come out ten times better for it with a real understanding of our own identity and our place in the world.