Completed Chapters

Several times we think of our past as something we need to avoid. Something we try to cover by making our future so bright that everyone is blinded; they don’t see the brokenness we have been through. At least I know I have been in that position myself. We work so hard to make up for the past, hoping it will just disappear and be erased.

Recently, I have found myself thinking about the past and all the bittersweet memories that come with it. The good ol’ days make me smile to myself, and some days, you want to scream or cry or whatever people do when they are sad. At the end of it all, I have come to realize that maybe I have been looking at it wrong.

After several conversations with people and one too many movies, all I can think of is this quote from the Lion King. “The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.” Sometimes, we are too busy running that we end up making the same mistakes. While trying to forget all the pain certain circumstances or people gave us, we forget the lessons that came with them.

This is why most people end up in a situation where they wonder why they keep making the same mistakes. It’s not because it did not hurt the first time but because you forget to learn since you blot everything out.

Thanks to the movie, A Madea’s homecoming, a great lesson that I was reminded of is that there is no future without the past. If there’s nothing to compare to, there is no need to be better. The past should serve as a guide to our next destination. We usually think of it as chains that stop us from having a better future. When the truth is that we are the ones refusing to let go.

I have noticed the more you try to run from the past, the easier it is to get trapped in it. However, when we decide to embrace it and deal with whatever trauma it brought, we can wave goodbye to that chapter of our lives.

It isn’t always easy flipping over and starting a new page. There are all these thoughts about messing up and making a mistake - good thing we have an entire book ahead of us. Better still, we can always look back to the previous pages to remind us what direction the story should not take.

At the end of the day, you are the author of your own story. Sure, there will be some contributors, but only you have the right to decide how it ends. Will you stop writing, or will you make it a book worth reading?