On Friday, my husband, a few friends, and myself were all having a conversation on our porch. In this conversation, it came to the topic of being an adult. We are all in our mid to late twenties and some of us feel old before out time while others are still barely touching the mental age of fifteen. We’re a nice mix of maturity and fun and it keeps things interesting and exciting.
While on the topic of being an adult, we all came to the conclusion that being an adult is much easier than what everyone said it was going to be. Yeah, we are all still trying to figure out what we want to be when we grow up. Yes, we’re all still figuring out what the end game is for us. And, yes, we’re still trying to fight the fact that in a few years gray hairs might start appearing.
But that’s stuff we’ll never stop facing. We’ll face those problems for the rest of our lives.
What we have all figured out is that life is so much easier when you realize that no one is honestly looking at you. People are so absorbed in their own lives and their own problems that they are rarely every judging you. If they are looking at you, they’re just looking and comparing you to their own life and their own problems. If they’ve made a mental ranking of you, that’s their prerogative. Their scale? Doesn’t matter. And that’s the freeing part.
I tell my students that they shouldn’t worry about what people think of them. They need to be their own person and strive for inner happiness. I know they aren’t going to hear that because their hormones have given them selective hearing and the power to worry about every single aspect of their being, but I hope that it sits somewhere deep in their heart and resonates until they get older.
Life is easier when you just paddle your own boat or you find someone to paddle it with you. Go about your day and do what makes you happy. Forget the looks you get and forget the mental scales of measure. Find the measure of self-worth.
Today is a good day to start that!
Boat Against the Current 