Can you go under the limbo stick?

I hope you don’t mind that I put down in words, how wonderful life is while you’re in the world.

This is your song.

This is your life, and you can sing how you want to.

The hardest part is deciding how you want to live it, right? Because if it was easy we would have more people working jobs they enjoy,  we would be vacationing often, and we’d end up with our soulmate, right?

Maybe life is suppose to be hard, confusing, and daunting. Maybe we need to be scared shitless in order for the universe to throw some balls in our court. Maybe it’s testing us all on how bad we want it. Greatness is brewed in the journey. We can’t Netflix and Chill, and expect our minds to stay sharp and ambitious. Things don’t just roll out perfectly. Actually, things have a way of turning out different than how you want, so it’s up to you to work your booty off to make it right. Especially if you are interested in actually enjoying your life.

There’s a difference between being content with your life, and thoroughly enjoying it. To thoroughly enjoy, you gotta actively  be a part of your life. If you mindlessly work it away, and then spend the rest of your time melting your brain in front of your super thin TV, you might lose sight of what’s really important. LIVING. DOING SOMETHING. MAKING SOME TYPE OF IMPACT ON SOMETHING. Putting effort into something feels good. It’ll make you want to do more. Try it out with me, I’m new to this whole real world thing, too.

If you are having trouble focusing your life onto something, know you are not alone. I thought I was the alien in the crowd, but talking to other people, I have found that everyone goes through a limbo stage in life. I have also found that when I tell people I am currently focusing on enjoying my life and just doing me at the moment, they nod with understanding. They then proceed to tell me that they themselves aren’t sure what they want to do with their life. Keep in mind that these are also people who have their degree–hell, even their masters. These are people who chose a path, and have realized it may not be the best one for them. But you don’t see many actually change the course that they’re already on. Why? Because it’s probably fucking hard!

We are all on the search for happiness and enjoyment. Just because you jumped through the hoops of college, and kiss your boss’s ass doesn’t mean that your shit is forever together. Enjoyment comes when everyday you actively put something into your day. You can’t expect the universe to just give you want you want without you giving it anything, did you?

 

 

What happens when you drive on the wrong side of the road?

A friend recently gave me some advice. He said, “Emily, you know, you can choose how long you want to feel bad about a shitty situation. You can let it affect you all the time for a long time, or you can decide that you’re ready to just move on. You know, it’s a lot like a technique people use to grieve. You set aside something like 5 minutes a day to allow yourself to feel bad, cry, scream, do whatever you need to do. When the 5 minutes are up the rest of the day you don’t allow the bad situation to enter your thoughts and take over your day. You make it a priority to move on, and to be happy. I mean, who says you have to stay unhappy for awhile.”

And I thought, ‘you know what…that’s fucking great advice.’

They drive on the other side of the road in Europe…on the other side of the car. Oh, and not to mention skinny windy roads where technically the speed limit is 100km/h, but you’re struggling driving them at 40km/h. But that’s Ireland for ya. Visions of me accidently driving us off a cliff and seeing the ocean surface get closer and closer to our windshield before water explodes into our faces definitely played in the back of my mind a few times the night before I had to drive. But when I hopped into our tiny car off to our adventure I felt oddly in control. Which, I realize is a feeling your should have while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. But I mean I oddly felt in control of my life at that moment–doing something I had never done before, had scary dramatic visions of, and yet I felt…intrigued. I was taking a direction.

This was the first big trip I planned, payed for, and attempted out of the country. I had no idea what to expect, and mostly no idea how I’d feel. I didn’t want to have too much expectations of having life altering realizations while in Ireland, but I guess I did hope for a lil something. So, as I’m embarking on a journey where it just seems too good to be true, no clue on what to expect, I find myself zooming through the Irish country roads adoring the breathtaking scenery–having the time of my life. There’s my lil something.

Once you allow yourself to be open to things, you learn a lot about yourself. So, let yourself try something new. Let yourself feel butterflies. Let yourself laugh with strangers, and let yourself fall into adventures. Because when you drive on the wrong side of the road, you’ll find that it’s a hell of a lot of fun and something you want to be familiar with.