When Life Hands You A Lemon

...make lemonade.
...trade the lemon for an apple.
...say "screw you lemon!" and bail.

There may never be a right answer to this particular question but one thing is certain; life is full of lemons. Either that, or all of you are sending me your lemons, which is quite thoughtful of you. Thank you. They were lovely.

I have always been a terrible car picker-outer. My first love was the 1978 Cadillac Sedan DeVille. Man, I loved that car. You know how some people say to look at the amount of time and money you invest in an area and see how much you really love something? If the car would have been a beautiful, intelligent woman, we would still be together today. Unfortunately for me, it wasn't. It was a car. One requiring a lot of attention. Needless to say, the old girl and I parted ways only in time for me to fall into another money pit: the 1993 Grand Prix.

It looked nice and far newer, but as was with many of the cars manufactured in the 90's, it was not up to par. I continued this pattern for the next ten years. I would buy lemons to replace other lemons. This only ever proved to be a sour choice. (come on. almost a year of writing and only one pun? let me have it.)

The older I get, the more I realize how the choices I make whether it is the car I drive or where I work or even who I choose to associate with, these choices have a greater impact on me in the long run. I loved my Cadillac, but if I had the cash in my pocket that I spent on that car to replace just about every part you can think of, lets just say I would not have to worry about making the rent for the next few years. If I had decided to join the Navy right out of high school, I would have been out and had health benefits by now. If I had decided to wait just one more year to really be sure I was ready to get married, we probably wouldn't have ended up together and I would have saved myself a lot of trouble.

But I am grateful for the lessons I learned by making the choices I made. I now know what I need in a spouse instead of what I thought I wanted in a companion. I went to college instead, realized it wasn't for me and had a great ten year carrier doing something I loved. And thanks to that old hunk of gold painted steel (that's right, gold.), I am not afraid of getting dirty under the hood of a car.

So what do you do when life hands you lemons? So far, I am simply thankful for them.