I think it takes a long time to get to the place where you can look back at the path you took and see how far you had to go to get where you are. When you get there though? Wow, the view is beautiful. Everything just seems brighter when you realize that no one can or should judge you. This life isn’t a race or competition, because every person must fight their own battles and win their own set of wars. A challenge that may seem trivial to you may in fact be life changing for another person.
This reminds me of another equally as important bit of advice: Never compare yourself to another; you never know where their path came from or where it is headed. I think it’s hard, especially in your twenties and thirties, not to look at those around you (friends, family, acquaintances, people on the street) and ask why your life doesn’t look like theirs. It is something I have struggled with quite a bit. When I turned 25, I had just moved back home after finishing law school. I had no job prospects and no romantic entanglements. I looked at some of my best friends: one was married, one was engaged, one was planning to be engaged within a year, and another was in a pretty serious relationship. It was hard not to look at myself and think that I had done something wrong. That somewhere along the way I messed up. When I finally got this job and moved to Kentucky I realized that I wasn’t in a relationship because it wouldn’t have allowed me to drop everything and move so easily. I finally recognized that their path is not the same path that I must travel, and that is ok. Life would be boring and predictable if we were all on the same path.
