Wow... how is it March already! I seem to be going from busy week to busier weekend with no ability to slow down the train. Actually I take that back, when sitting in slow moving traffic... I guess I'm not that busy. Just irritated.
While sitting in traffic I had the thought, "Is this all there is? Is this what it means to be an adult?"
I find myself wrestling with that a bit more each day. I have a job that I love, clients who appreciate what I do, family and friends close by (and thanks to facebook, spread-out), a fantastic boyfriend who loves me and shows it everyday... and yet... something is missing. I feel like I should be doing more.
When I graduate college, the quest was to find a job making lots of money so I could pay off student loans, buy a new car and maybe even a house. Now... almost 4 years later... student loan invoices still arrive each month (ugh), still have the same car and despite the fact that it is 10 yrs old, it's a Toyota with 230,000 and still no major overhauls needed... it still gets me around. Oh... and I live in an apartment.
Two years ago I started to watch friends buying newer BMW's, 4,000 sq ft homes, and fantastic shoes (hey, we all have our thing, that's mine.) and it made me feel as if I was lagging in "growing up dept." But still, I couldn't make myself spend irresponsibly (well... except for those fabulous Kate Spades... that was irresponsible but still lovely.) And now, I have 6 friends going thru foreclosure, 3 going thru a divorce, several stressing every month how they'll stay on top of things... and wondering how they got to that point. And I don't mean this to sound judgemental at all... but I feel extremely lucky I didn't go down that path.
And so all of this brings me back to my original thought... is this all there is?
If nothing else, I hope this current downturn in our economy snaps people out of the trance of just buying things and collecting more stuff. Maybe the historians will look back on this time as a period of introspection, when we realized that stuff (and the pursuit of stuff) while fun for awhile, isn't filling and doesn't make us better people.
So... besides work, family and friends... I'm now looking for that other component I seem to be missing. Any suggestions where it might be found?
While sitting in traffic I had the thought, "Is this all there is? Is this what it means to be an adult?"
I find myself wrestling with that a bit more each day. I have a job that I love, clients who appreciate what I do, family and friends close by (and thanks to facebook, spread-out), a fantastic boyfriend who loves me and shows it everyday... and yet... something is missing. I feel like I should be doing more.
When I graduate college, the quest was to find a job making lots of money so I could pay off student loans, buy a new car and maybe even a house. Now... almost 4 years later... student loan invoices still arrive each month (ugh), still have the same car and despite the fact that it is 10 yrs old, it's a Toyota with 230,000 and still no major overhauls needed... it still gets me around. Oh... and I live in an apartment.
Two years ago I started to watch friends buying newer BMW's, 4,000 sq ft homes, and fantastic shoes (hey, we all have our thing, that's mine.) and it made me feel as if I was lagging in "growing up dept." But still, I couldn't make myself spend irresponsibly (well... except for those fabulous Kate Spades... that was irresponsible but still lovely.) And now, I have 6 friends going thru foreclosure, 3 going thru a divorce, several stressing every month how they'll stay on top of things... and wondering how they got to that point. And I don't mean this to sound judgemental at all... but I feel extremely lucky I didn't go down that path.
And so all of this brings me back to my original thought... is this all there is?
If nothing else, I hope this current downturn in our economy snaps people out of the trance of just buying things and collecting more stuff. Maybe the historians will look back on this time as a period of introspection, when we realized that stuff (and the pursuit of stuff) while fun for awhile, isn't filling and doesn't make us better people.
So... besides work, family and friends... I'm now looking for that other component I seem to be missing. Any suggestions where it might be found?
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