Life is too short

Life is too short and too precious to waste on negativity. I feel like I have learned that in the past 3 weeks. I find myself often striving for perfection. If you looked at me you would never think of me as a perfectionist and a lot of things I do are not like a typical perfectionist, so I have come up with a new word called a “strivonist”! A person who strives to do too much. That is me.

Now it can be a good thing, but for me, I needed to realize a lot. I was striving to do well in 2 jobs. One of these jobs, I have had for a year and while I gave it my 100%, sometimes that is not good enough to other people and it causes you to feel pressure to give more than you have to something that is not worth all that you have.

I juggle so many activities and friendships and relationships, but sometimes I strive too much to be it all at the mere age of 23.

Last night I worked at the Light the Night Walk. It is a walk for those who have suffered from Leukemia. I worked with all the teams of children on the walk by teaching then to dance to songs like cha cha slide, electric slide, the cupid shuffle, wipe out, etc and motivating the crowd. It felt so good to be doing something for a non-profit organization, to be putting in my time and effort for people who need it more than a typical job that is just for money. All of a sudden, all of my stresses and problems vanished when a young woman came up and told how she developed cancer at the age of 22. Just one year younger than the age I am now. She talked about how it came out of nowhere and actually went unnoticed for a while. She said it changed her life forever and talked about how much support and love she had around her and how she put up such a huge fight to battle it. She made it through and it made me realize how life is too short to stress yourself out with people or jobs that mean nothing in the end.

I am on a journey at this stage in my life, trying to figure out how I can do a job that incorporates all that I love. I have discovered that I love children and am really happy working at my new job teaching children, but I also want to be performing and doing film and singing more. I am a people person and need to be surrounded by people. I don’t want to just work to pay the bills. I want to grow and learn from every job and use all of my potential, but in this journey, I am letting go of my “strivection” and taking the time to explore new possibilities that will lead me to what I am really striving for.