Enjoy Life as it Comes

When we're little kids, we always want to play with the big kids.
Once we're the big kids we want to be a teenager.
When we're teenagers, we want to be in college.
Once in college a few years we want to be in the work-force.
Once in the work-force we either want to be back in college or married.
Once married, we want kids.
If we rent we wish we could own.
Once a home-owner, we complain about having to fix everything ourselves or mowing the lawn.
Married, with kids and we're envious of our single friends.
Single friends, especially those 25 and up are envious of their married friends,
Once our married friends start having kids, we want kids.
Moms and Dads want to have their freedom back, want lazy Saturday mornings, late nights out with the guys, women just want a day to herself.
When you're working full-time, we wish we didn't have to work.
I'm not working now, I can assure you it is certainly not all that its hyped up to be, I want to be working.
Once we have our kids and they're old enough to cause us trouble, we want them to head off to school.
Once they leave the house we want our "babies" back.
We long to retire, but once retired, we are back in the work-force part-time or volunteering.
By the time we are old enough to retire (and for our generation...with the way we've not been saving...we may never be at that point!) we wish we were young again. "Remember when we were young and thought we knew it all?"

I know this may all seem dramatic, but ever since I've lost my job I have had so many people tell me they wish they had my time, they wish they had my schedule. When I was working, I'd use excuses for why I didn't get to the gym, why I couldn't volunteer for this or that, why I couldn't spend time with God. Once I lost my job and had all the time in the world, it became very obvious to me that it wasn't at all I didn't have time to do these things, it was that I didn't want these things badly enough to make time for them.

Being that I am a people-person and talking is one of my favorite hobbies, I am very lonely being unemployed. I share an apartment building with 3 other families with 2+ kids, all stay-at-home moms. I hear their kids laugh through the doors and for a quick second get jealous of what they have, while I sit at home alone. But I try to bring myself back to reality and remember that those moms have probably had that same thought about me when they see me pulling away kid-free with my windows down, sun-roof open headed to Chicago for a date with my boyfriend or "girls night out." We are all living the life that we have been given for a reason. I am not sure that I will ever understand why I have been unemployed the past 4+ months, but I hope that I am somehow making a difference for someone, even though I am not working like the rest of you. This time off has certainly allowed me to appreciate just how blessed I am in everything. We all need to slow down and appreciate the lives we have and enjoy every second. Before we know it, we'll be that old, retired, over-weight, memory losing grandma/grandpa saying, "honey, remember when we were young and knew it all?" Except we'll be asking why no one told us to slow down and enjoy life...it goes way too fast!

song-of-the-day|"I Want to Kiss a Girl"|by Keith Urban