To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child or a garden patch…..to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Then it sort of hit me. All this time, I’ve been thinking that true happiness was all about the day when I was going to be fully satisfied with everything about myself. I was going to be satisified with the way I looked, my career, my family, my home. That day, I was going to be happy. And that’s definitely true.
But no, I then realized, happiness is more than that. It’s also when we learn that it isn’t just about ourselves anymore; happiness is the day we learn to find fulfillment in making someone else happy. And I’ve lived through that too. I’ve been so selfish all my life that when it came time to witness the happinesss of someone else I loved at the expense of my own, it really didn’t matter. It actually felt kind of…..happy. lol =]
Happiness is finding yourself through others.
It’s difficult.
Once I heard someone say, “You can’t be disappointed if you don’t have expectations for them. And usually those expectations come out of love for them.”
Very true.
So that’s where the real challenge came in. I realized that there has to come a day when I don’t think about things in terms of me, me, me anymore. I don’t know when, or if that day will ever come. But at least starting this Christmas, I want to be a better person. I want to be someone my parents can be proud of. I want to be a person my friends can depend on and one day say, “yea, we’re good friends after all these years.” I want to be a student my professors can truly respect.
I guess this is the start of my own “bucket list.” As if by a strange twist of fate, it seems, I found a piece of paper stuck in Tuesdays with Morrie. It was a photocopy of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous quote about success.
Maybe it IS time to start thinking about what I really want out of life.
Maybe it’s time to take control of situations.
But this I know for sure,
I know it’s time to start anew.
It’s time to be strong.
It’s time to have courage.
It’s time to know.
It’s time to be me.
So this Christmas, or this New Years, or your personal favorite start date. Take a look at what you’re doing. What you’ve done, and what you can do. And don’t ever let jealousy, hatred, anger, or any of these feelings get in the way of your relationships with people. Don’t let that get in the way of your happiness. Don’t be afraid to let love in, and don’t be afraid to give love to others.
Because in the end, deep down inside, everyone’s just like you and me.
