Analyzation of Favorite Quote

One of my favorite quotes is this: "Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect, it means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections." For me, this makes an appeal to pathos as I connect with it through means of a personal trial that I endured. It was my junior year of high school during soccer districts when I hurt my knee, got an MRI, and discovered that for the second year in a row I had torn my ACL, a vital ligament in the knee that requires surgery and months of physical therapy and recovery. I was distraught when I realized that yet another soccer season would be cut short by the same injury that had severed it the year before, not to mention my perfect knowledge of the incredible pain involved with this injury and subsequent surgery. At first, it was very difficult for me to be happy despite the inner turmoil that I was struggling with. Soon however, I realized that circumstances do not or rather should not determine my happiness--I always had a choice in the matter. And why would I choose to be miserable? Once I made this discovery, things were so much better. Sure, nothing really changed with my physical situation, but everything had changed in regards to my attitude about it. I began to feel immense gratitude for things like the incredible ability for the human body to heal, for modern medicine which allowed me to curb some of the pain, and for the love and support of my family in helping me during a time where I couldn't hardly do anything by myself (including showering, going to the bathroom, and getting upright from a laying position). This experience I had and the lessons I learned is the reason why I am the perfect audience for this statement, and why I was impacted so. Whenever I ponder it, I think back to this difficult and rewarding time in my life as I was able to better myself through the lessons I learned. It thereby, became a self reflection as I recognized the truth that if I could, I wouldn't take back this trial of tearing my ACL twice because I wouldn't want to live without the knowledge I gained and the better person I became as a result. Being happy in spite of the imperfections in a way, then helped me to gain perfection, certainly not with implications of freedom from error, but rather as Elder Nelson put it, in achieving a distant objective (mentally in being happy no matter what and physically in  working to gain back the use and ability of my knee). The rhetorical impact that this quote has on me is clear  when I consider the elements at play.