"You will never sense fulfillment in life unless you reach the goal of being yourself. Don't be in competition with others; just concentrate on fulfilling your potential."
~From Discover the Joy of Being The Person God Made You To Be by Joyce Meyer
Who I am...
I am a mom, wife, daughter, student, friend and a retail manager. Sometimes I don't know where one role ends and another begins. Some days are harder than others. The days where I have to decide if I can take the day off work to stay home with a sick child or husband. Or, the days where I didn't make it home in time to eat dinner with my family because I was trying to finish up at work.My story really begins almost 11 years ago. I graduated from college and was ready to take on the world....wait, no that wasn't it. In reality I was scared to death. I was scared of being a full blown adult that was supposed to be responsible for my own well being. Lucky for me I had a lot of support from my family so that transition from college student to professional didn't go too poorly. That same year I reconnected with and old boyfriend and lucky for me we've been together ever since. We will be married 10 years this August.
I'm not saying it has always been easy. We moved 4 times in 6 years due to jobs. We've been through job changes, financial ups and downs, births, deaths and the mundane things that come along in life. My husband is my best friend, my protector and my confidant. There isn't anyone else that I would choose to share this journey we call life. By the grace of God we created 2 beautiful boys that continue to amaze me daily. They remind me that life really isn't worth sweating the small stuff!
Then why do I often feel that I'm not good enough? Why is it that I look around me and I think that I could be doing more? Maybe my expectations are too high. Maybe others I see around me cut corners too and I just don't see it. Maybe their house only really gets cleaned when company is expected. No joke, we don't ever have unexpected guests due to the fact that we live over an hour away from family and friends. I am sure their opinion of my domestic skills would be much lower if they saw our house day to day. Maybe, just maybe, I have chosen to only see what I want or think I should see. Maybe Facebook, Pinterest, magazines and reality t.v. has helped to skew my perspective a little.
Giving it up!
So, I'm giving it up! Ok....I'm not going cold turkey. But I am making new choices. No more Facebook on my phone or iPad. Sorry friends, I don't really need to know that you are cooking dinner and it is snowing nor do you care that I'm having a hard time getting my kids to stay in bed. Sure, I like looking at the pictures and hearing about the good stuff that happens but if you are a constant complainer and passive aggressive poster you have been deleted from my friends list. You probably don't care anyway and I'm not offended if you don't care. No more reality t.v. (Ok, HGTV you I will keep because you give my inspiration.) It isn't real anyway and why was I always comparing my life to theirs? I love Pinterest and I don't feel a bit guilty about not being able to do all of the pins I save. It's like a digital hope chest. I'll keep that one thank you very much!What am I doing? I am choosing to look at life in a new perspective. I am choosing to better educate myself by going back to school and obtaining my masters degree. I think it is important for my children to see the effort of hard work, determination and a good education. I am choosing to not worry about getting ahead in my job and be thankful that I have a reliable job in a good company. I am choosing to make my priorities God, family, me and in that order.
