I was watching the Paul O’Grady programme where he has been having a staycation in Kent. In the episode I was watching he was going shrimping in Dungeness, and the person he was shrimping with was saying that it was just what his life was, as that is what he has grown up doing.

I went for a walk with a friend this morning and as we were talking, walking and drinking coffee we ended up saying that that’s what life is, it is just what it is. We’d been talking about grammar schools – obviously- and she asked if there were grammar schools in Birmingham so I told her my story…

Yes, there are grammar schools in Birmingham but the ratio of grammar schools is considerably smaller to the ratio in Kent. When it came to choosing secondary school I really wasn’t that fussed. It came to the open morning at one of the girls grammar schools and I thought ‘I might as well look at it’; so I looked round the school and I thought ‘I might as well take the tests’; so I did the practice books and took the tests; I found out I’d passed and thought ‘I might as well go’. None of my friends were going, I knew nobody but for some reason I decided to go.

I can honestly say that decision made my life what it is; and yet none of it feels like decisions but just a series of ‘I might as well’ ‘It is what it is’.

It has been a VERY long time since I have written and that is simply because I have been struggling mentally and physically. The brain has been playing up which has led to numerous seizures and numerous injuries including black eyes, broken toes, and a bruised jaw! However, although there has been frustration I have often responded to people ‘It is what it is’.

My seizures started when I started secondary school, the two weren’t linked – more to do with age! They have been a part of my life ever since. I don’t believe there is a reason why they are a part of my life but they are. I just live with it, and do what I can, and don’t do what I can’t. I’ve known I’ll never drive; I know I spend most time around the end of the year indoors at night due to fireworks and Christmas decorations; I know not to go to discos; and I know I need to allow my body to rest after seizures. After all, it is what it is.

2020 has been a very strange year for all of us; it is very easy to focus on the negative. For example, this Christmas we weren’t able to see either of our mum’s in person. However we were able to speak to them both, go to church and spend time our family there, and have a blessed time just the two of us. There was no choice – it was what it was.

As we enter 2021 maybe ‘it is what it is’ needs to be a motto we try to hold on to. As I look back even when I haven’t really made decisions Good has come out of it; even as bad appears to be happening good can also result. I believe we all have a Path that we are walking along, we have company but may often feel alone. It is our path, t we may not understand why we are walking it, or why we are walking different bits at different times. It is at this point that I find I need to say…

IT IS WHAT IT IS