My friend Catie sent me a blog entry a few days ago from tulips and flight suits (http://tulipsandflightsuits.squarespace.com/tulips-flight-suits/2012/1/17/all-the-single-ladies.html) titled “All the Single Ladies.” Before you judge, I want to tell you about my favorite part: “do what is possible & that you love in this season of life."
This is something I struggle with ALL THE TIME. I know it is human nature to look forward and think about the future, but I feel like I do it constantly. It’s what we have been taught our whole lives: get good grades in high school so you can go to a good college, do well in college so you can get a good job, work hard and figure out what you really want to do, go to grad school, get the next promotion, and it keeps going. People ask you your five, ten, twenty year plan and frankly, sometimes it is just exhausting.
While I have heard this a million times, for some reason this blog post just hit home with me. When we are constantly looking ahead and anticipating the next life stage: when I go to grad school, when I get married, when I get this certain job, when I move to this place, we often miss out on the great things about right now.
I had a blast when I lived in DC. There were hard times, just like any other part of life, but in general, I loved my life there. I had a good job, great friends, a wonderful church and a fantastic home. It is bizarre for me to think that if I move back to DC, it won’t be the same. Friends will have come and left the city, my job will be different, and I’ll just be in a different life stage. So often in my time in DC I was thinking about the next step, sometimes I forgot to enjoy the present.
So after being inspired, I’m going to really try to love the stage I’m in right now. I can’t really define it- some combination of a single, grad school, young adult, but that doesn’t seem to cover all of it. But I know that I’m here for another year and I love grad school, Raleigh, my friends, and my family. So really, there is no reason not to love my current life.
The author of tulip & flight suits lists examples of doing what you love: taking a trip to italy with your best friend; taking that assignment with work out of the country for a few months; have a west wing or downton abby marathon weekend; eating apples with peanut butter, wheat thins, hummus, and ben & jerry's s'mores ice cream most nights for dinner; going to yoga three times a week; taking that painting class; switching jobs, again; splurging on those j.crew flats; leaving on a spontaneous road trip with five minutes notice; staying up all night ...
While all these things sound lovely and I have accomplished quite a few of them (NOTE: if any of my best friends want to go to italy- just let me know), I’m going to try to start small. Last week I went out on a Thursday night, just because I wanted to. This week I decided that over the next month, I want to watch all the Oscar nominees for Best Picture. Last November, within 24 hours, I planned a long weekend trip to Florida with two of my best friends. These are things that make me happy and that I love. And I get to do them with the people I love, in Raleigh, in DC and across the country.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to eventually doing all the things in the American dream. Maybe even a picket fence one day. But for years the Lord has been trying to teach me to be patient and to let Him control the timing in my life. And while patience is still a work in progress for me, I’m going to have a great time doing the things I love while I’m waiting. J
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