Preparing for something unexpected is not something easy to do, but pushing past it is a part of life. 

“I do my best and what I’m normally expected to do and what I’m not ready for, I try as hard as I can. Usually that’s enough. You should always brace yourself for something different happening than what you expect, even if it’s something you would’ve never dreamed of,” Wesley Chauvin, 12, said.

There are things a student cannot predict, but try to work around.

“I feel like [the quote ‘expect the unexpected’] is true in most things since you don’t know what’s going to happen the next hour or the next minute. Anything could happen,” Brionna Casaert, 11, said.

It is important to create a good support system or to find ways to overcome an unanticipated obstacle.

“To go through hardships, I would either be with my friends and lean on other people that I trust or that I know. You never know what’s actually going to happen in your life,” Adelyn Bauer, 10, said.

However, unexpected news is not always negative. An event or piece of news can also have a positive impact on someone’s life.

“There have been [good surprises]. I think it would’ve been good whether it was surprising or not, but [it being] surprising definitely made it more of a rush when it did happen,” Chauvin said.

Even more so, the element of surprise can enhance the experience.

“It makes me more grateful for it in the long run because it’s really great and you weren’t expecting it. There’s so many things that you have to deal with and that’s a part of life,” Bauer said.

Whether good or bad, there are events that can happen out of the blue, and how they are handled is important. Different students may have different methods to deal with surprises, but they all agree that it is a part of life.