We make a lot of plans, all the time. We do it because we’re human, and because “looking forward to” something is right behind breathing — we do it naturally, and we do it to live. Bright spots in our lives are as essential to our existence as air.

We may get to a point after thinking, imagining, wishing, planning, preparing and dreaming, however, where we say to ourselves, “Wait…this isn’t what I pictured. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”

All the planning in the world might make us feel better in the interim, but at the end of the day, things will be what they’re supposed to be. The may not be what we expected, but they are what they are. And they’re that way for a reason.

Tonight I am thankful that things aren’t always what we want them to be. They’re sometimes frustrating, sometimes trying, sometimes educational and sometimes enlightening. But sometimes life’s best lessons take place outside of the classroom and inside the days and scenarios where they’ll most resonate with us.