Potholes in the Road.

I take the same drive home from work everyday. I drive in autopilot sometimes and I know each individual bump in the road. While driving the other day, I had a metaphor pop into my head that I really wanted to share. I'm certain it's not the first time anyone's considered it, but all the same, I wanted to put it out there.
On every road, there are of course potholes, lumps and bumps. No road is ever straight and flat. Lately, I've kept the music off while driving--it's a short ride home and sometimes it's nice to have silence. Now sometimes, because I know the way home so well and I can get bored easily, I wind up observing other cars and drivers. You know them--the cell phone talkers, the smokers, the guy who really loves to jam out to music and doesn't care who knows it. Because I know the road well, I know how to avoid the potholes and risk my car getting out of whack. I know it depends on the car's location on the road, but still, I noticed it. Some drivers go around the potholes, and others, like myself, try to finangle it so the car centers and passes directly over the pothole without ever touching any part of it. However, there are some I'm always going to hit because it's next to impossible to avoid them. I just have to grit my teeth and pray my little blue Easter Egg of a car can take the hit.
You know those sayings about how life is a journey, and the bumps are a way of life? I think that's a good analogy. I'll add to it: those potholes are the bumps and rough spots of life. Some people choose to avoid the potholes; they just flat out go around the problem and refuse to accept its existence. However, other people, such as myself, do their best to center themselves so that while they have to approach the problem, they at least try to embrace it.
Granted, this theory is a silly leap and a little childish--after all, anyone can come up with this theory. But it got me thinking about how in the past, I tried as hard as I could to avoid a problem. I pretended it wasn't there, swerved around any questions and took the shortcut to a solution by denying its existence. If no one talks about it and I can't see it, it didn't happen and it's not there. However, in the past couple of years or so, I've really begun to be a little more adult about the situations. College had a huge part to do with this because you can't avoid someone just because you don't care for them, or argue an opinion without backing it up with evidence. While I talk a lot about putting the smackdown on people, I consider myself to be a very non-confrontational person and will try the best I can to find any solution. Read: ANY solution, as in it may not be the best one, but it's the quickest one I came up with, so that's that. It doesn't mean the problem is gone forever. You can't just throw some rocks in the pothole and think you're done; eventually, the rocks will get shuffled out and it'll be time for another, more long-term solution.
NOW, it's a little different-I still want to take the quickest problem-solver, but I'm trying to at least spend more time finding a solution so that I can say I exhausted all my resources. On that same token, I don't immediately jump to a freak-out. I do my best to stay calm and keep everything together. And if I can't find the solution, if I can't avoid the pothole--I take the hit. I brace myself for impact and believe that when it's over, I'll come out better because of it. And if it stuns me enough to throw me out of whack, well then, I guess that's what mechanics and friends are around for.
LC.