Today I’m here to give you a different perspective.
If you have read a lot of my previous posts or followed my life at all, you know the way I like to live.
If you haven’t I’ll sum it up for you in one word….reckless.
Now to me, reckless isn’t necessarily a bad thing, which is why I live my life this way.
But today instead of glamorizing how awesome your life can be when you toss all the "what if’s" out the window, I want to address the elephant in the room.
This lifestyle I live is scary, and full of a whole lot of uncertainty.
Quitting your job to leave and go travel the world?
Sounds like a great idea (and it is).
This is something I do not, and will not ever regret…but I was also fortunate enough to get that job back upon returning.
Could I have found a new one? Of course, easily. This isn’t the case for everyone though, and that is something I need to remind myself.
Selling all your belongings and packing up your car to move across the country with no plan?
Sounds like something out of a movie.
Me? I have a cushion to fall back on. If I blow through all my savings, fall flat on my face, and fail entirely...I know I have a place I can come back to until I gain my stability again. Which is why making this decision wasn’t as difficult for me as it could be for some.
The point I am trying to make is this...
We are not all given the same advantages in this life, and that's the reality of it.
I feel weird talking about “advantages”, because up until writing this post I was always sure that I had been the one dealt the shitty hand in life. I could sit here and list a million reasons as to why my childhood and upbringing wasn’t the best, but honestly who’s is?
That’s not how this goes. Life isn’t a competition of who had it worse and still made something out of themselves.
What I want you all to understand is this,
we base a lot of our decisions on the “what if’s”, and for some people the consequences of those possible "what if’s" are a lot more serious than others.
So who am I to think that the way another person is living their life is wrong?
They may have a whole lot more to lose than I ever did.
When I write these posts I need to remember it’s not a "one size fits all" kinda scenario.
My life and my circumstances are unique to me.
While I have been faced with a countless number of hardships and both internal and external battles to reach the point I am at in life,
I am also so blessed to have a lot of things that not everyone else has.
Blessed with a home, means of transportation, a good family, supportive and uplifting friends, a good paying and fun job, resources and technology to reach the audience reading this post, and my health.
Every day I have a goal--
a goal to be a better version of myself than the day before.
I want to grow, learn, and do better every single day.
To do this, one has to be self aware.
Not only that, but you have to be willing to listen to criticism.
And not only be willing to listen, but also willing to take that critisism and use it to your advantage.
We are all a work in progress, and recently I have been working on trying to see things from all perspectives.
Saying you’re open minded, and truly being open minded are two different things.
The majority of what I base my beliefs off of are due to my personal circumstances, but I have to remember that my circumstances aren’t everyones. Some have it better, some have it worse…but none the less, different.
We all share some common ground though, and that is the ability to conjure up the strength and capacity to seize the exact life we want to live...regardless of what it is.
So heres my disclaimer:
Before you take my advice and hit the ground running with it, remember this….
My lifestyle is scary, and full of uncertainty.
It’s more than the perfect Instagram photo, the crazy stories, and beautiful people I’ve met.
I don’t have a college degree, I don’t have a retirement plan, I don’t have a bunch of money, and like I’ve mentioned before…I certainly don’t have stability.
These are real life things, as real as anything else that I've done in this life.
These are the "not-so-glamourous" parts of my idealized lifestyle that no one wants to talk or think about.
Now, will any of these "what-if's" stop me from going in the direct I am going? Certainly not, I love the life I live more than anything,
but I also know it would be wrong of me not to tell you guys the entire story.
This is the ugly truth, but at least it’s the full truth.
xoxo, Jessica
