Life is an opportunity, benefit from it - How Mother Teresa has inspired me.

"Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it."
— Mother Teresa

 

 A truly inspiring woman her entire life. Leading by example and sought to engage and help others by living a life devoted to Christ. She was amazing in her devotion to helping those in need, unloved, and uncared for. She was a light. Always giving of herself and dedicating her life to making the lives of others better. After she became a nun, she started in poor slums in Calcutta, teaching others the way of the Lord and working as a teacher at St. Mary's. On May 24, 1937, she took her Final Profession of Vows to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. As was the custom for Loreto nuns, she took on the title of "mother" upon making her final vows and thus became known as Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa continued to teach at Saint Mary's, and in 1944 she became the school's principal.

Two years later, she received her 2nd calling from Christ, as she was traveling by train to the Himalayan Foothills. He told her to abandon her teachings, and that she had another calling. Mother Teresa recalls him saying to her: "I want Indian Nuns, Missionaries of Charity, who would be my fire of love amongst the poor, the sick, the dying and the little children," It took a while to get out of teaching, since you can't just leave the convent you've been assigned to so in 1948, the archbishop released her and she wandered into the city wearing the white sari and blue sash that became her staple outfit. 

Mother Teresa quickly translated this somewhat vague calling into solid  actions to help those in poverty. She began an open-air school and established a home for the dying destitute in a gross old building she convinced the city government to donate to her cause. In October 1950, she won canonical recognition for a new congregation, the Missionaries of Charity, (founded with only 12 members to start and  most of them former teachers or pupils from St. Mary's School.) As the ranks of her congregation swelled and donations poured in from around India and across the globe, the scope of Mother Teresa's charitable activities expanded exponentially. Over the course of the 1950s and 1960s, she established a leper colony, an orphanage, a nursing home, a family clinic and a string of mobile health clinics. By the time she died in 1997, the Missionaries of Charity had numbered  around 4,000 ( in addition to thousands of volunteers) — with 610 foundations in 123 countries on all seven continents. She also traveled to New York City where she opened a soup kitchen as well as a home to care for those infected with HIV/AIDS. Then, in 1979, Mother Teresa won her highest honor when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her work "in bringing help to suffering humanity." 

She combined empathy, with a drive to help others, and management skills to achieve so much in her short life time... I think she was incredibly inspiring and although I am not deeply religious, I am spiritual and believe in being a genuine good person. I want to make a difference in people's lives and influence them to think about their actions. I try my damnedest to lead through example, and make good choices, and pay it forward. I hope that others look at Mother Teresa and the good that she did, and think about what they can do to make someone else's life a little better. I love random acts of kindness, but I see many people these days very much in a "me, me, me" state of mind. Many seem to think that they have it so much harder than others, and I see them playing the victim... or making excuses as to why not. And that life is disappointing and hard, and things never go their way. Obviously this isn't everybody, but it's sad that these are their thoughts and there are many selfish individuals. I hope I can inspire others to change. To think outside themselves. To realize that when we can be nice to everyone, and respectful of everyone, even when they aren't nice or respectful to you, we can achieve peace and happiness. But I'll continue to work on myself every day. I am far from perfect, and I'm sure I'll never be a Mother Teresa... but I want to make a difference in peoples lives and I can follow her example and help others in any way that I can...