Solitaire

 

Today at work, I had quite a bit of time on my hands.

In between classes, I decided to play solitaire to help pass the time.

I had already completed all of my work for my online classes.

I had everything planned and ready to go for the rest of the day and Friday.

I thought, why not relax and have a little bit of fun?

This is embarrassing to admit, but I didn’t win one game of solitaire.

And I probably played a minimum of 50 games (this is not an exaggeration).

I just kept playing and playing, game after game, and never won one.

I know, I know.

I must really suck at the game of solitaire.

After about the 45^th game, I began to realize something.

The game of solitaire is really like the game of life.

Wait, not the actual board game “Life”, but life in general.

I know you’re thinking to yourself, “Dear Lord, Hope has lost it.”

But, just hear me out.

I will explain, just keep on reading.

First off, let me just tell you, I played the REAL game of solitaire.

I didn’t cheat and change the settings to “Draw One”.

No, no, no.

I wanted to win fair and square.

I chose “Draw Three”

Rebel, I know…

I could have cheated, played the easy way.

And I probably would have won the majority of those 50+ games I played.

But, would I really have won?

Because deep down, I would have known that I cheated in order to win.

You, as the reader, would have never have known that I cheated if I didn’t tell you.

You might have thought, “Wow! Hope is amazing at the game of solitaire.”

And I could have gone along with it.

Talked myself up and bragged about how good I was because I won so many times.

But, I would have known that I cheated.

The game of solitaire is a complicated one.

You’re not always dealt the best hand, but you try anyways.

You start off trying to make the most matches before ever opening the draw pile.

If you can make a lot of matches before having to open the draw pile, you think, oh yeah, I’m gonna win this one.

Then you open up the draw pile, and begin flipping through the cards.

You start making matches, you get on a roll, and oops!

Then it happens.

You passed up a card you know you could have used.

But, thankfully, there is an UNDO button that can be pressed.

You click on file, hit that undo button, and you’re back to where you were before.

You place the missed card where it belongs and then you move on.

However, in my case anyways, going back to get the missed card never really helped.

I still would end up losing each time.

But, sometimes, going back to pick up that missed card did help push my game a little further.

After every losing game, I got upset.

I won’t lie, I may have used a couple of choice words after losing over and over again.

But, I never stopped playing.

I kept trying again and again with the hopes that I may win the next time.

Although I never won a game, I still want to keep playing.

I still have the hopes that I will win one day.

So now, I want to apply the game of solitaire to the game of life.

We go through life everyday and we are handed all types of things.

We push forward everyday with what we got in hopes to get where we want to go.

There are times when your life will be going perfectly.

You’ll get so caught up in your perfect life, that you may lose sight of what is important.

These important things can include school, family, friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc.

You may try and go back to pick up what you lost while you were so busy with your perfect life.

Sometimes, those people will forgive you and let you back in, but sometimes they won’t.

The point is, you still have to keep pushing forward whether going back benefits you or not.

There will be times when it seems like you can’t win anything.

You might feel like the whole world is sitting on your shoulders and you keep losing at everything you do.

But, you never stop trying.

You still get up everyday, put a smile on your face, go to work/school, and push forward.

Deep in the back of your mind, you know that one day, everything is going to get better.

One day, you will have everything you’ve ever wanted.

One day, you will be truly happy with yourself.

Until next time...