Fault vs Responsibility

Hi my friends!

I'm sorry I've been neglecting you for a while - I've been super busy with both my personal life and my academic life.

There's been a lot of stuff going on with me for the past little bit so I'll just catch you guys up!

As you all may know my grandmother passed away in the middle of May very suddenly which was a pretty eye opening and horribly sad experience. Now to add to that my dad has been recently diagnosed with Collecting Duct Renal Cell Carcinoma.

To save you the trouble from googling it, it's a rare and aggressive kidney cancer. Thankfully his family physician has caught it relatively early and he is going in to have his kidney removed this week.

Am I writing this because I want you to feel sorry for me? NO

Am I writing this because I want you to feel like my struggle is worse than others? NO

Some of you may be wondering why I'm sharing all this information? Why am I writing a blog post about this?

To keep it real with anyone reading.

Life happens. People get sick. Unfortunate things happen all the time. It may suck right now and it may not be fair right now and you may feel like the world is against you.

I recently read "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***", and a statement that the author made really stuck with me. I'm just going to try to paraphrase it and if you want to know more about it I HIGHLY suggest you read this book.

Basically there is a difference between "fault" and "responsibility". Generally we use those words simultaneously or tend to use them together but they are actually very different. Fault it from choices already made and responsibility results from choices that you're making right now.

For example (in my own situation) it's not my FAULT that my dad has cancer but the way I act/respond since he has cancer is my RESPONSIBILITY.

So needless to say it's been a busy time since I've posted on here and I've had some pretty stressful days and nights... but so has everyone else.

We all just need to notice the difference between fault and responsibility.

- Jen