I’m not
sure when it stopped being okay to be ordinary. When it wasn’t ok to live a
small and simple life. I live a very small and simple life, and with the
billions of people on this earth, the ripple I will make in the history of
human kind will be very small.
I will not
win a Nobel Peace Prize. I won’t invent the longer lasting light bulb, write an
award-winning novel, and I will never star in a big budget Hollywood film.
Here’s the thing- I’m okay with it. I’m happy with the life I am living, and
enjoying all the perks that happen to go along with it.
I don’t
think enough people appreciate how amazing the lives we live are. I’m guilty of
this from time to time too. I’m guilty of not appreciating the life I lead,
where I grew up, who I get to spend my time with. I’ve gone through depressions
when I didn’t want to face the world because I thought it was out to get me. I
haven’t felt anything people before me haven’t felt. Of course because we are
feeling these feelings for the first time, it is an acute experience. How we
feel it must be different, right? Not so much, but I like that we still try to
find a way to make it our own. Yet it is, because it’s ours, (go on, scratch your head after that one. You're allowed).
Here is
where I’m lucky. I have a spectacular family. They are my foundation. I come
from truly fantastic parents, and I have the best brother a broad could ask
for. I have so much extended family I really don’t know what to do with all of them.
I’m lucky enough to have met the true loves of my life already- my friends. To
be loved unconditionally by people you have chosen to have in your life, that’s
something everyone should have the pleasure experiencing.
I have
fallen in love more than once. I’ve experienced the greatest addiction anyone
can and will experience, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’ve experienced
heartbreak as well. The bone crushing withdrawals we feel when we lose someone
who became a part of us, and now is a stranger.
I’ve heard
music, gone to the theater, learned how to dance. I’ve stood in the ocean, tasted
snow, and failed at something more than once. I’ve dreamed beautiful vivid
dreams, and been awoken by horrifying nightmares. I’ve stayed up to watch the
sunrise, cuddled with someone as I fell asleep, and experienced loss. I’ve
cried so hard I couldn’t stand, and laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants.
I’ve been lucky enough to attend college, and graduate. I’ve experienced blind
hatred and pain, fear and depression. My father has told me he’s proud of me,
and had my mother take care of me when I’m sick.
There are
things I still want to do. I want to travel around the world, own a dog, have
children. I want to pursue my doctorate, go to a hockey game, and sky dive. I
want to find my person, and hold onto them for the rest of my life.
I don’t
need to conquer the world, or travel the universe. I’m ok with never being
popular or famous, and I’m ok with never being rich. I know how to be happy,
how to dream, and that fear turns something on inside of me, and pushes me
harder than anything or anyone else. I believe there are bigger things
happening around me, and I believe god is in the rain. My little life is part
of something so much more than myself, so I don’t have to be extraordinary.
Kind of a cool thought when you really chew on it.
That all being said, this is all based on what you consider
to be ordinary, and extraordinary. Go on, ponder that for a minute.
I’m just a wee little part of our cosmos. I am me.
“Yet what is an ocean, but a multitude of drops?” – David Mitchell
Cloud Atlas
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