When I was 17, I fell extremely ill. My health forced me to finish my senior year of high school home-bound.

2012 was dubbed the year of needles and hospital stays.

As I was only 17, I had been lucky enough to have never dealt with any real difficulties in my life—the biggest “obstacle” I had faced up to that point was the fact that I didn’t have unlimited data on my phone. But then, overnight, it was like I switched lives with someone and found myself sitting among doctors who were speculating the worst about my health.

After so many months, it became evident that I was dealing with more than just a physical illness. I had convinced myself that no one understood what I was going through. I was bound to my bed and a slave to the experimental medications my doctors prescribed me. I felt I had lost complete control of my life.

In my mind, I was helpless.

I only woke in the morning by instinct, not because I wanted to.

But I will never forget the night my dad came into my room, bravely entering my fortress of sadness. He sat on the edge of my bed and I prepared myself for some sort of tough-love dad advice that he always gave. Instead, he more or less told me that he had no advice, but before he left he hung a typed quote right in the middle of my cork board alongside pictures of me in healthier days. The quote said:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

This quote has stuck with me, and will continue to do so through my entire life.

Life isn’t always going to be perfect, and if you are anything like me it’s important in those times to meditate on this mantra: change what you can, accept what you can’t.

Author: Emily Cutshaw
Image: Used with Permission from Penelope Dullaghan
Editor: Emily Bartran
Copy Editor: Sara Kärpänen
Social Editor: Waylon Lewis