As we stepped into the Valley Fair Mall parking lot, my mother and I heard a shout in the distance accompanied by the loud honking of a car. We continued along the row to where our car stood, but in between our car and the next was a large golf cart, belonging to security.

The flashing yellow lights blinded me for a second, and my heartbeat suddenly leapt. At that  same moment, I heard my foot crunch on a piece of metal.

Looking down, I saw shards of glass glistening on the ground. Slowly looking up at our car, I soon saw the source of the broken glass.

Looking through our back left window, you could see shards of cracked glass lazily sprawled across the back seat as well as little scratches on the remaining pieces of glass from the window.  Our back right window was removed, and small shards of glass framed the empty window frame.

Everything except for my backpack was shoved to the side of the car.

I was speechless. There was nothing more we could do other than survey the damage and file a police report.

A  few  days  later,  I  once  again  began  to  think  about  what  I  had  lost in  the  theft. I hadn’t lost a lot, but even the smallest objects that had been stolen held significant value now.

As  humans,  it  is  our  natural  tendency  to  attach  a  sentimental  value to  things.  Usually,  we don’t  understand  the  magnitude  of  these objects’  influence  in  our  lives  until  they’re  gone  and  no longer accessible to us.

Unconsciously, so  much  of  our  lives  are attached  to  common  everyday  objects.

In the weeks after the incident, my lost school work was slowly recovered and I slowly began to re-purchase school supplies that had previously been in my backpack. It was a slow process, but in the end, no significant change had been made to the way I lived my life.

In our everyday lives, there are everyday situations in which our resilience is tested. Apart from having the ability to bounce back, we must be able to move forward with our lives and realize that what’s been lost, whether abstract or concrete, is now no longer playing a role in our lives.

As ludicrous as this seems from a car robbery, I’ve learned a valuable lesson: to let go. In my situation, I would never recover all of the stolen objects. In life, the circumstances can range from moving on from a rejection to a major loss. Whatever the outcome of these events, the verdict usually cannot be changed. Acceptance and forgiveness are crucial, but the best thing we can learn to is learn to let go.