“When the going gets tough, the tough get going” sounds like one of those sayings meant for a locker room or a pep talk. But Mama’s wisdom often became clearest when life did not go according to plan.
I learned that lesson early in my teaching career. I was already teaching and had been given information about my position for the next school year. Then I shared the happy news that I was expecting a baby in April.
Later, I received a call telling me my position was no longer available because of what was described as a mistake by human resources.
Whatever the explanation, I suddenly faced a reality I had not planned for. I had expected to keep teaching. Instead, I needed to find another way to earn money.
So I did.
I worked for Welcome Wagon, the longtime service that welcomed newcomers to a community and introduced them to local businesses. I sold cemetery lots. I delivered telephone books. I also worked for the census, going door to door to gather information.
None of those jobs was the career path I had pictured when I became a teacher. But there was work to be done and income to be earned, so I did what was available until I could get back to the work I loved.
And I did get back. The following year, I returned to teaching.
Looking back, that year taught me something I probably could not have learned quite as well if everything had gone according to plan. Getting tough does not always mean making a grand, courageous gesture. Sometimes it means swallowing your disappointment, looking at the choices in front of you and doing the next job that needs to be done.
There are seasons when the job disappears, the plan falls apart, the money gets tight or an unexpected responsibility lands in our lap. We can spend a lot of time asking why it happened, and sometimes we deserve an answer. But eventually, we still have to decide what comes next.
For me, what came next included Welcome Wagon, cemetery lots, telephone books and census work. None was a replacement for teaching. Each was simply a way forward while the road I wanted to travel was temporarily closed.
That word — temporarily — is something we do not always recognize when we are in the middle of a difficult season. What feels permanent today may simply be the bridge to what comes next.
Resilience is rarely about never being knocked down. It is about what we do after we are.
Mama might have put it more simply: You may not get to choose what happens to you, but you do get some say in what you do next.
When the going gets tough, sometimes the toughest thing we can do is simply get going.
What Mama said: Life lessons you didn’t know you needed—until Mama said them.
Enjoyed this article. Read more What Mama Said… by Susan Espiritu.
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