What to do when life shits on you

My wife got hospitalized today.

We never expected this to happen. Last night, we came back happily from eating a Wagyu beef buffet. It was great. My wife left the restaurant smiling from eye to eye. She was completely satisfied with the meal.

But this morning, she felt breathless. She didn’t have the strength to move around, and she felt her heart was beating so strongly that it almost beat out of her chest.

So she went to the neighborhood clinic…

And the doctor told her to go to the hospital.

I dropped what I was doing immediately and went to the hospital with her. It was 12 pm when we arrived at the hospital.

The hospital was packed. We got split up pretty quickly because my wife was wheeled into the “critical care” section in the accident and emergency department. I had to do the registration.

It was already 5 pm when the doctors are done with their initial assessment. They wanted to keep my wife in the hospital for further assessment.

We agreed.

And we waited…

It was 9 pm when she was finally sent to the ward.

There goes my day.

But the show has to go on

If you’ve been with me for a while, you would know that I release one article every Wednesday and one video every Friday.

This is a commitment I made publicly since January 2018, and I intend to keep this commitment. The show must go on regardless of what happens.

So here I am writing an article at 11:30 pm at night.

I want to share three things about this experience.

Nobody stops for you

Life goes on. People still go to work. The sun still rises from the east and sets in the west. Nobody is going to take the time to stop for you when life shits in your face.

We can whine that shit has happened, and it caused us to lapse from our commitments and promises. Or we can make sure the work gets done regardless.

Like I said earlier, the show must go on.

I contacted my wife’s manager so her work can be passed on smoothly. And for me, I had to work on this article late at night because there was no one else to take care of it for me.

What needs to be done needs to be done.

It doesn’t matter what happens. It doesn’t matter how tired we are.

That brings me to my second point.

Rest well

It sounds ironic to hear me talking about rest when I’m working overtime right now! But there’s a reason why I’m talking about rest.

Today is Monday. (It will be Wednesday when you read this article). Coincidentally, I slept for almost 18 hours on Sunday. I rested up. Or I wouldn’t have the energy to spare today.

I wouldn’t be able to stay present when my wife needed me. I wouldn’t have been able to work on this article and provide support to my students either.

Make sure you dedicate time for rest.

Make sure you recharge properly so you can handle the things you need to.

And this brings me to my third point

Structure your life

I tried to carve a life where I can spend time with my family as much as I can. If I had to drop everything to be with them, I will.

That was what happened today—I dropped everything so I could be with my wife.

We only have one life.

I don’t want to regret anything when I lie on my deathbed. I don’t think you want to either.

What we need is to structure our lives. We need to prioritize the things that matter to us. Our families, our dreams.

It WILL be hard to create the life you want. But wouldn’t it be worth it?

(I think my wife is fine. She’s not in any danger. I expect her to be discharged in a few days. I’ll spend the next few days working from the hospital so I can be with her).