It’s not over until the fat lady sings.

I still remember calling my mom in absolute tears over a C I got on a paper in college. I was an A student, Straight As were my thing, so getting a C felt like total devastation. It wasn’t even my final grade, just one assignment, but at the time, it felt like the end of the world. I was dramatic, panicked, and convinced I’d just ruined my GPA and possibly my entire future (classic college meltdown energy).

My mom listened patiently, probably holding back laughter, and then hit me with: “It’s not over until the fat lady sings.” I paused mid-sob and just started cracking up. It was so unexpected, so absurd, and yet, somehow, exactly what I needed. Leave it to my mom to pull out a random saying right in the middle of a crisis. But she was right. That one paper didn’t define my semester, and that moment didn’t define me. I ended up doing just fine in the class.

Now, I repeat that line to myself whenever I hit a bump or things don’t go my way right away. It reminds me to zoom out, take a breath, and keep going. One bad day, one rough grade, one disappointment is not the end of the story. It’s not over until the fat lady sings.