You're Not Behind

Hello loves!

The summer is coming to a close and with the change of season comes a shift in mindset. For a lot of people, summer is associated with freedom, vacation, spending time with friends and family, etc. School is done, people are planning when to use their days off, and the sun stays out longer, making us feel like we have more time in the day to ourselves.

Summer can feel like a break in reality for people.

It's focused on fun and time doing the things we enjoy. The things we're usually pursuing can be easier to put on hold during the summer months because we've associated this time as "vacation time".

But now the summer is wrapping up, and fall is coming. Soon it will be winter, then the end of December, and a year's flown by before you know it.

It can be easy to get overwhelmed seeing how quickly the year has passed. We usually begin the year with ambitions or 'resolutions' that we want to accomplish. And sometimes we fulfill our dreams; we get that job, start that hobby, and lose X amount of pounds. But more often than not, life gets busy and our goals get pushed back by the "I'll do it later" mantra.

Then summer comes and goes, you realize you're more than halfway through the year and you haven't done nearly as much as you'd hoped. To make matters worse, you look at all your friends and see the things they've accomplished and convince yourself that not only are you behind on your own timeline, but now you're also behind in life just in general.

Been there.

It freaking sucks. There I said it.

It's hard seeing other people getting or doing the things you've hoped for, whether it's getting a dream job, earning that degree, getting married-- whatever. It's especially hard when you open up Social Media, see your peers or people younger than you in back-to-back photos of achievements or sparkly engagements (y'all know what I'm talking about).

For some reason a lot of people, myself included, believe that there's a certain "order" to how we live life. Yes, we accept that everyone's journey is different, but still a lot of people I've talked to feel like they're still so behind.

They don't have a job. They don't have a partner. They do have a partner but aren't married, or don't have kids. The list goes on.

The truth is, a lot of life doesn't go according to plan for anyone. We may make our dream timelines, but I'm inclined to guess that no one in the history of ever has actually hit every main milestone "on time".

And that's okay. It's great even!

Life isn't supposed to be a timely arrow where we hit goals at predestined moments. It's random and messy and an adventure all in one. Most of the greatest success or love stories I've heard of happened when people were looking for something else, and got a brilliant idea or bumped into the right person instead.

Your life is your life. Everything will happen exactly when it needs to happen.

It's okay to be upset or frustrated. Ignoring your feelings is a terrible idea and you can allow yourself to mourn whatever dream life 'high school you' had planned.

Then dust yourself off. Look at all the things you have accomplished, even if they're way different than you had originally planned.

You're on the right path because this path was made for you.

You're not behind; you're right on time.

Love y'all!

"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." --Proverbs 16:9