Life Is Not Always Fair

Happy Tuesday #Jontourage,

Welcome back to the “Classy Gent Chronicles”, where staying classy is the only way to be.  Let's jump right into it....

What do Brian McKnight, Nas, Busta Rhymes, Amerie, Carl Thomas, Tamia, Tyrese, Tupac, Biggie, Ginuwine, and Donnell Jones all have in common besides being great musicians?  

​All those musicians have NEVER won Grammy Awards.... Unfair right??? I was absolutely floored when I saw this.  I am mean floored!  One night, I got bored and literally started looking up music trivia and soon after an internet search, I saw that none of them have won Grammys.  Don’t get me wrong, there are other prestigious awards out there but in the world of music, the Grammys is one of top honors to have.  What makes it worse is that some people I thought would never win have….won. Go figure!​

It just reminds you that sometimes life is not fair.  Life is one of the hardest things to figure out sometimes.  You can seem very compatible with someone and they end up marrying someone else.  It can feel like you had a great interview and the hiring manager really liked you and someone else could get the job.  You could win a million dollars and get hit by a bus.  Okay… I know that one was a little extra (sorry about that).  My point being that life is not about how much you plan, how hard you think you work, or how many people like you.  Things can and will still work against you.  One thing I teach my students is that life is only 10% of what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it.
In my life, some of my biggest letdowns have led to the coolest things.  I have been passed up for jobs and got better jobs than the one I thought I wanted.  I was not even supposed to go to University of Delaware, I wanted to go to Bucknell University.  As a finalist for a scholarship program, I would have gotten a full ride to Bucknell University.  However life had a different set of cards for me.  Not only was I not chosen for the scholarship, I didn’t even get into the school.  But I will tell you this, that was one of the best outcomes for my life.  At Bucknell because I would have had a full ride, there would have no desire for me to work thus I probably would have never became an RA which opened the door to my present day career.  Some of my closest friends I met at the University of Delaware.  What at the time felt unfair to me was really just a part of a bigger plan for my life.
My belief on why life feels unfair is for two reasons.  One, opportunities have to go to others so everyone gets a chance to smile and shine.  Two, the things that don’t work out in your favor are meant to teach you something.  With every job you didn’t get, the goal was for you to learn how to be a better interviewer.  With every friend that you stopped talking to, the goal was to learn how to be a better friend and/or make better decisions regarding who you let in your life.  If only good things happened, where is the growth and reflection?
So with those musicians, for some maybe life has more in store for them than a Grammy.  We will just have to wait and see.
Moral of the story:  The trick is to be optimistically cautious and live life to the fullest.
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Remember, in order to live out your dreams, you have to think it, feel it, live it!  Until next time, stay classy... ​