About a month and a half ago, I was lucky enough to hear the Dali Lama speak at an event held on Emory’s campus.  I’d never heard him speak before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  However, my classmate who had gone to one of his events a few days prior described him as a “cute old man” so I decided to go with that.  When listening to someone as revered as the Dali Lama, its hard not to expect everything out of his mouth to be profound.  I was hoping to be enlightened by every syllable, and I was……..just not in the way I thought I would be.  What I liked most about the Dali Lama was that he was human, and that he was honest.  Occasionally, someone would ask him a question, and his response would simply be “I don’t know.”  It was refreshing because it was true.  No matter how experienced we are, or how revered, or how knowledgeable, there is so much that we just don’t, and can’t know.    The Dali Lama did have many words of wisdom and advice, but unfortunately, after a month and a half, I have forgotten most of them.  There is one thing he said, however, that sticks out in my mind;  “Enjoy the struggle.”  I interpreted the meaning of his words as this; Life is never going to be perfect.  There is always some aspect that is going to be difficult.  As humans it is easy to wish for the past or the future as in “I wish I could be a kid again” or “I can’t wait to graduate.”  We are often wanting a situation that is different from the one that we are in.  I am especially guilty of this, so I took the Dali Lama’s words to heart.  Instead of always wanting to be in the past or the future, just enjoy the present.  I will never be a 29 year old first year PhD student at Emory University ever again.  There are some days where it is painful, but I feel like it is important to enjoy all of it, even the sucky parts.  I know from experience that once it is over, I will miss it.  So, rather than do that, I’ll just enjoy it while I’m in it.  So, thanks for the advice Dali Lama.  You are a cute old man, but I think you are pretty smart too.

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