I'm too young to have as many hard, sad decisions behind me as I do. I've lived through some pretty major abuse and a rare disease, I gave up a major life dream, I've had a child die and I've been all but left at the altar (these are all stories that are too personal to me to talk about, no matter how wonderful you ladies are). I'm only 31.

On the short term, I gave up a perfectly decent job on ethical principles, I had my bike and my confidence wrecked in a car accident, I lost my boyfriend of almost two years, I'm still healing up after a serious tissue infection and I put my back out. All that in the last eight weeks.

Some of these things are choices I made for myself, and others are not. Others may argue that they are results of choices I made further back in time, but some things you just don't choose - like the MRSA. I didn't choose to develop an abcess; all I can do is choose what to do about it. I DID choose to go back to school, and now I also have decisions to make about the unforseen impacts that has had on my life. Having an understanding of my own choices, along with knowing that life WILL go on - that's the core of "dealing with it."

So to balance out that litany of tragedies and obstacles, let me also share with you some of the other amazing things that I have chosen to do:

I forgave and and am now friends with my ex fiancee.

I spent two years training to box - I even participated in four tournaments, and loved the experience even though I lost all my matches.

I learned target archery and got my certificate to teach it, and did so for five wonderful summers at Girl Scout camp.

I returned to school to finish my BA after dropping out of college.

I gave up a perfectly good job on ethical principles. That's on my negative list too, but it really is both - I'm proud of myself for it, even if it's also been a sizeable hardship.

I went back to school again to persue a new dream. I've had to give up a lot of things to do it, and I'm putting myself into serious debt, but it will be worth it in the long run.