From the Heart: Have Courage to Change

Have Courage to Change

No Matter What You’re Facing, You Have a Choice

by Lori Kroh

I think more than ever we need a dose of courage to face uncertainty and a coach to come around and cheer us on to a new day. There has been a lot of fear and people need to hear that no matter what ... they have a choice. You get to choose in your life. One hundred percent and with every part of me, I want you to know that you always have a choice. Pick up the crown of victory and hold your head up as you face your future. It may seem like you are stuck in a corner with no way out ... yet, I want to share with you that you always have a choice. You can choose to absorb or repel. You can choose fear or faith. You can choose to cry or deny. Whatever you are facing, there is always a beautiful crossroad and you are there choosing your path and which way to go.

Chin up, Buttercup! Get up Rocky! Come on Rudy! Muster fortitude and grit and try to remember what your grandparents did when facing hard times — they faced them. Creating a plan B always gives you hope because then you know it’s one hundred percent you. Only you know your compass, and just being open to ideas of different possibilities can reframe the moment. Who you were meant to be will be etched away by fear if you don’t choose courage at times in your life.

A long time ago, many in Bartlesville faced losing their jobs. The pressure put upon this city by one man was so great it altered the lives of many forever. I know that to be true, because my parents chose to take the early retirement package. I was here since age five and we moved away the summer of my senior year. All I ever knew was Bartlesville.

We moved away to Tulsa and then on to Fort Worth, Texas. I was so far from my home, yet for some reason never felt lost. I learned character traits such as to trust God and how to be flexible and be open to new friends. It expanded me as a person for the rest of my life.

I grew up off Tuxedo before it was a nice, wide road. I grew up walking pathfinder to school and stepping on a cactus as I took the shortcut home. I met my friends at Sooner Pool and we used baby oil for sunscreen. I raked yellow-amber leaves from our 30foot-tall elm trees. Sooner Hill was our sledding dream and we made igloos because the snow was so deep. Many Saturday nights, we popped in a cassette and we cruised downtown, hitting Mcdonald’s, Ken’s Pizza, then on to Jack Griffith’s for potato fries and an icy coke. I was looking forward to graduating with the friends I had known my whole life. But my parents had a choice. This one changed the course of our family forever.

I want to tell you a secret though. I wouldn’t change a thing. The memories I made over the years, living where we lived and the people I have met, were all because I left my comfort zone. Out of your comfort zone is where you will grow.

Although I am back here with my own family now, I have always been grateful that my parents chose their courage and faith over comfort.

Some of you now are facing uncertainty and letting fear creep into your thoughts. Some of you may feel as if you don’t have a choice and nowhere to go ... I can tell you from the other side that you do indeed have a choice. You have so many good things going for you and you have to believe in yourself! I want you to climb to the top of your Sooner Hill and breathe deep. You can’t even fathom what great things will happen because you won’t see that part on the path until you are there and look back. Your roadmap is to trust God, be flexible, and be open to meeting new people. You never know how someone who knows someone will be able to help you with what you need now. You can still be what you always thought you would be, and I believe even today that your crossroad is meant for your best life! There are people who need what you have to offer in this life and I want to instill courage in you today! You have a choice and only you know deep down what is best for you!

“No star is ever lost we once have seen, we always may be what we might have been.” — The quote evolved from a line in Adelaide

Anne Procter’s 1859 poem A Legend of Provenance.