One of my favorite country songs is “Wasted” by Carrie Underwood. No, it’s not about being drunk…yeah, I know it’s a country song but they aren't always about being drunk/depressed/cheated upon/etc. Usually, but not always. This song is about 2 people who don’t want to waste their lives doing or being something less than what they could be. Here's the chorus:
I don't wanna' spend my life jaded
Waiting to wake up one day and find
That I've let all these years go by
Wasted
Last week, I was putting together a flyer for work and was researching quotes to include. I stumbled across this one:
There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion . . . It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I love this quote because I want to be strong enough to be the person I want to be regardless of what people think about my choice. Most of my life, my choices have been in agreement with what the people around me would approve. What would I do if my choices ever don't? Would I be strong enough to stand my ground despite the disapproval of family and friends?
I'd like to think that it would be really hard...mostly because I'd hate to be responsible for causing my loved ones to worry...but that I could do it.
As a friend recently reminded me, life is only lived once and I need to make the most of it. No fear of making mistakes because I always learn from them. No fear of falling in love in case I get hurt - dive in and enjoy the moment as long as it lasts and pray to God that one day it will last forever. Do what I'm passionate about and what makes me feel challenged and fulfilled despite whatever obstacles, hard work, and sacrifices may cross my path. Explore, have adventure, settle down, establish roots, find joy in the big and small moments, love and be loved, cry, laugh, dream big, dare, trust, be myself...my best and truest self.
Live a life not wasted.
