This weekend I had an interesting experience- I went to my first wedding reception, ever! It was for one of my friends that I knew last year during my first year of college, and it was crazy to see him get married, while I'm still living the single life. It's crazy for me to think that there are people out there that are my age who are married, have kids, have a salaried job...
So around this point in my thought spiral, I start to get a little down. I take stock of myself and see that although I am working on a college degree and living separately from my parents, which are big things, I still have a lot to do personal-growth wise. I look at my peers, and use comparison to judge my worth (which is NOT good, I'm working on it) and that robs me of my happiness. Although taking stock of yourself can be helpful if it helps to internalize goals and achieve better thins personally, sometimes it works the opposite way. I find that sometimes when I'm not going out on a Friday night, or going on a date, or even getting asked out, I start to lose sight of what is really important.
Not that dating isn't important, but valuing yourself based on arbitrary benchmarks and outside markers are not doing us any favors. I found that when I was (and am) comparing myself to others and their amount of trips, friends, money, beauty, love life, etc. that I was getting down on myself and not seeing the positive of the things that I do have. I have a great life- full of family, cats, financial security, and a healthy body that allows me to run marathons and Crossfit. Just because my life doesn't necessarily look like someone else's doesn't mean that it is a bad life- it's all MINE.
As I reflect on what I want to accomplish this new year, I have some ideas, but my main one is to be happier by being thankful for what I do have, working on what I can change, and letting life do everything else and work itself out. We'll see how that goes, but I've resolved that life is too short to be unhappy about the things that you can't control.
