"Life is short."
That's a funny thing to say. Yet, we all say it. And mean it. It does seem short, doesn't it? After 26 years, I am truly beginning to understand the concept. My life is at a very strange stage. It seems as though the last ten years have flown by. Just today, I made a comment that when I say something occurred when I was sixteen, that was actually ten years ago. It just feels so odd that it was a decade ago that I started driving, dating and was more than halfway through high school. It's hard to fathom it, as I feel like I was in college at Ohio State only a few days ago.
However, there are some aspects of my life that still seem to take a very long time. For instance, I feel like I am slooooowly getting to a "real job". When I was younger, age 26 looked very different. Honestly, when I was sixteen, I pictured my current age like this:
Married. A baby. Working a great job. Living in a nice house, that I owned, of course. Pretty much the upper middle class lifestyle.
Yeah. That's no quite where I'm at.
Sure, I'm married, but that is where the similarities end. While I did marry a wonderful guy, and I am quite happy, there are certainlly aspects of my life that are not what I expected. I definitely didn't picture living with two other people when I got married. Nor did I imagine the debt. Oh, also I didn't think I'd be living in Arizona. I certainly didn't think I would be childless, and furthermore, I didn't think I would be aiming more toward a two year plan or so for having kids. I really figured that life was a giant cookie cutter, I guess.
And yet. I am so happy. I really am. I have made some really amazing friends in the last year. I have been so, so blessed. Really. There are people in my life who are just perfect for the place in life that I'm currently at. I have found an amazing church, and even though we have gone through some changes in the short time I've attended, I feel so at home. The people there are really and truly the greatest people I could ask for in a church community. I need that. God has been so, so good to me. I know that even when I am feeling low, He is there and He is guiding me. I know for sure that this is Plan A. I think that is what really keeps me going, knowing that God has Plan A for my life. This life is not a punishment or a secondary plan. This great life is mine, and I am embracing it with everything I've got.
I don't know how I went from thinking about the "life is short" phrase to all of this. I guess, to round it out, I would say, yes, life is short. But it is so much more than that. It is a really interesting, crazy, wonderful, beautiful journey. There are ups and downs, but that is the interesting part. We hate to admit it, but the rough patches are a really integral part of the journey. They are a huge part of what makes us who we are, and for that I am very grateful.
To sum all this rambling up, I would just like to say that I am happy to be on this journey. Long or short, difficult or easy, life is a road we all have to take. I'm choosing to embrace it with all I've got.
