Fall in love with as many things as possible…

Love. A four letter word that can mean different things to different people.

Tell me: what do you love?

I love a lot of things. I love my family. I love my friends. I love my job. I love shopping. I love traveling. I love coffee. I love writing. I love shoes. Clearly, I love a lot of things. The list is… almost endless. Because you see, although there are many things I do love, I know there’s a whole range of things out there that I have yet to love.I got to thinking about what I love, what I want to love, and what others love while I’ve been enjoying this much needed, fabulous vacation to Tennessee these past five days.I saw that others love each other. They love their baby. They love their cat. They love their dog. They love their home. They love smiling, laughing. It made me excited and eager to one day share those same feelings of love on my own some day.It’s strange, how life kind of flashes before our eyes sometimes.To this day, when I hear someone is expecting, or engaged, or moving in together, getting married, I think, what? No way. We’re too young. Only then to realize that I will in fact be 28 in just over three months and my close friends only trailing one year behind. We’re not as young as we used to be. Of course there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just a fact that’s taken me awhile to get around to realizing.I’ll admit, I get envious in the beginning, seeing my friends and others people I know experiencing all these milestones, thinking about how when I was younger I had this idea and plan in my head that I would be married by the time I was 26, be living in a house with my husband and experiencing that happily-ever-after I saw my parents experience being high school sweethearts.But, as I got older and time went on, I learned that my life likely wouldn’t pan out as I had hoped and wanted. And it took me some time to be OK with that. It took time for me to accept and be happy for my friends when they hit these milestones. After all, that’s what I should want for my friends–for them to be happy. What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t want that for them? Of course, though, too, I always want what’s best for them.Visiting my best friend and college roommate this weekend has made me over-the-noon happy to see just how in love her and her fiancé are. It makes me even more happy and excited for when I get to experience the same thing one day. I don’t know when exactly it will happen but I have hope and confidence it will.In the mean time, I’ll continue loving what I already love and learning to love more along the way. I hope to fall even more in love with my life in general. Being grateful to be alive and see another day, especially given recent current events where people’s lives were cut much too short.I hope to fall in love with trying new things, whether it’s an activity, a food or drink, or something like going out on a date! Keeping my options open. ;)I hope to fall in love with seeing cute kids and not being instantly annoyed when I see them, LMAO, because God forbid I have my own some day. Lolol.I love chocolate. I love the beauty of nature. I love driving with the windows down and the music cranked up. I love feel good news stories I get to report on. I love Target. I love sunshine. I love being up north at my cottage. I love being out on the lake. I love… many things.I hope to fall in love with so much more than I already have in my almost 28 years of living. I have to remind myself every once in awhile that I’m still young and I have my whole life ahead of me.See, loving something doesn’t always have to be about romance but if it is, all the more amazing it is. 😉So tell me, what do you love right now? What do you hope to fall in love with in the future?Until next time…XO,Anamaria

The first step to accepting yourself is to stop comparing yourself to others…

It’s officially fall.

The season changed to fall Sept. 22, but who’s counting?

With a change of season I feel like comes a change for many of us. Or, at least those seeking a change. To be honest, I’m not quite sure if I am ever actually seeking a change, or, if I just think I should be doing something different than the same old, same old.

As for this new season?

I could say I am up to changing this or that, but the reality is, I would probably let whatever change I set my mind to fall to the way side because, let’s face it, that’s just who I am.

I will say this, perhaps I won’t do anything drastic, but, as time moves on and I get older each day (because, let’s face it, we all do) I realize I need to stop and smell the roses — er, coffee. I must do this before I just continue to freak out about my two years old mid-life crisis at 27 and wonder why my life isn’t how I pictured it to be when I was younger?

I don’t know when exactly it was but at some point, I started to panic about being whatever age I was at the time and wondering why I wasn’t at the same point in my life as my friends. It never used to bother me, and then one day I found myself constantly obsessing, wondering if and when I would reach certain milestones or other goals people my age tend to make.

In reality, I know me obsessing and freaking out about what I haven’t yet accomplished is a big waste of time and and stress on me, but, I haven’t quite mastered yet the art of just “letting it go.”

How does one “let go” anyway? I think it’s much easier said than done. Right?

And you know, I’m not even sure if this freaking out is because I really think I should have accomplished these milestones by this age of 27, or, if I am more so freaking out about if and when, if ever, these milestones will be crossed for me?

I really think it’s a matter of if and when. After all, on the one hand, I can’t really picture myself as being married and having kids, or another milestone, at this very moment. Not that there’s anything wrong with being married and having kids right now, at whatever age you are, but, personally for me, having kids right now would just be irresponsible of me.

I mean, I am not engaged. I live in a studio apartment. Work five days a week, sometimes 6, up to 8 hours a day. It just wouldn’t be ideal to have a kid. And then as for a wedding? That’s a lot of time and money, too, that, unfortunately I just don’t think I have right now. Obviously in the future I anticipate and hope to, but, that’s the future.

Then, if I don’t stress myself out about myself enough, I feel like I get stressed for other people. People my age getting married, having kids, doing this and that. It can make my head sometimes spin wondering how they are going to balance the process of those things, and the end result, all while maintaining their jobs, friend and family?

I don’t know, perhaps all of these people handle stress and change better than I do, which is likely the case, but then I also wonder when and why it became the “norm” to do all this stuff, which to me, seems so soon?

OK, so it’s really not soon. I mean, I am now officially closer to 30 than I am 20 and that thought alone is terrifying. When I was younger I thought I would be married by the time I was 26 and probably, if ever, have kids shortly after. Funny, right? But, true.

For whatever reason, that wasn’t in the cards for me, which is fine but, with more and more people my age settling down with their significant other and having been steady in their career for a long time, I can’t help but feel I somehow got far left behind in that bandwagon.

Now I know, some people are probably reading this and have actually questioned me like, why is this such a big deal to you and my response is always the same. I don’t know. Perhaps, honestly though, a twinge of envy. Obviously I am happy for other people who are happy, and that’s not to say I am not happy but, I can’t help but wonder (if and) when I will get to experience all these great milestones that they’re reaching. Perhaps, because I am how old I am I figured I should have already reached these milestones? Maybe, but, life has its own way of playing out, which is something it took me a long time to realize.

I used to hate it when people would say, “Everything happens for a reason.” My eyes would bulge out of my head and I would think, “They’re crazy.” Example being, if a loved one died, whether it was of natural causes or terminal illness or accident. WHY? Why did this awful thing have to take my loved one away? I could never fathom why people would say that and I refused to believe it was true until I got older and I essentially forced myself to believe it.

And so perhaps that’s what I need to do now. Force myself to believe that when the time is right, and when it’s meant to be, I will reach all these great milestones so many others I know already have. Perhaps it really isn’t a matter of if it will happen, but when, and it will happen when it’s meant to.

For now, I just to focus on the present. Focus on what is now, not what was or what will be, but the now. And the me now needs to focus on being happy, not envious, of my fellow peers, and focus on thriving on my own. Being happy for myself, by myself, and focusing on my career. I myself have a lot going for me personally and I tend to forget that sometimes.

But like I’ve said before, this is all much easier said than done. And with that, I will likely have to “fake it until I make it”/force myself to believe that when it’s meant to be, I’ll be content with my life and genuinely 100% happy/0% envious of those around me. It pains me to say I have a twinge of envy but, I gotta be honest with people and myself. Otherwise, it’ll just eat away at me and I’ll be miserable.

Anyway…

Until next time…

XO,

Anamaria

 

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