Life is Fair

One of the first times I thought life wasn’t fair was when all my friends seemed to have a love life and I was left without any significant other. I simply can’t relate to all their stories. So as not to feel totally left out, I’d eat with gusto then proceed to crack a joke or two so that the conversation would be different as we shift topic.

At home, my Mom would admonish me, she’d say, “You’ve gotten too fat, mag-diet ka nga.” That’s not just coming from my mother because even my uncle and friends would tease me about it. Being overweight has a devastating effect on women’s lives. Big is definitely not healthy. I’m not happy with my size though I admit that in ten years, I became quite comfortable with my body—with my being fat. I find nicknames such as Telly Tubby, Miss Piggy, Titanic, and Incredible Bulk hurtful and insulting. Slim women were always considered more attractive and intelligent. Sad but true, I believe society discriminates against overweight people. You kinda know something was wrong if the prince even in your own dreams, never chooses you to be his Cinderella. So I grudgingly accepted my fate. I thought I’m not as bad as Pruella or even Sardella—I may not be Cinderella, but there must be someone for me, too. I continued to be a fat teenager and then a fat adult.
But then in school, when everybody would be wracking their brains before an exam, I would just breeze through my books. Call me a braggart now, but at the time, I couldn’t understand why some of my classmates were having a hard made up of what happens to you. Ninety percent of life is decided by how you react.”

In other words, we really don’t have control over the ten percent of what happens to us. We cannot stop the car from breaking down. The plane will be arriving late, which throws up our whole schedule. A driver may cut us off in traffic. We have no control over this ten percent. The other ninety percent is different. You determine the other ninety percent. It’s not what happens to you that makes or breaks you, it’s your reaction to each situation which does. So the next time life throws you a bunch of lemons, react by picking up its pieces and making it the sweetest-tasting lemonade ever. Yes, life is indeed fair.