My whole social life as a teenager revolved around going to horse shows.
It was an interesting dynamic as a teenage girl to be friends with competitors. Trying to figure out when to be a friend and when to be a competitor was the hardest part for me. I couldn’t separate or meld the two, and I also couldn’t prioritize them.
I remember feeling full of anxiety as we pulled into a horse show. I told my mom how I was feeling and she asked me if I wanted to go back home. I never wanted to go back home. I loved being at the shows, they were my second home.
I feel the same way about being a mom. There are challenges and hard parts, but I never want to quit being a mom.
I heard Wes Moore say this the other day, “everytime you stay longer than you want to, you will become extraordinarily ordinary.”
I can easily recognize those times in my life too.
Where I continued doing something I didn’t want to do anymore. When I stayed somewhere because I thought I should, not because I wanted to. When I was doing something because someone else told me to.
I can sustain a good job for only a short amount of time in those areas, then slowly I become uninspired and “extraordinarily ordinary”. I start going through the motions and lack all focus and creativity.
Doing what we want to do is important. It is where we feel most alive and bright. Doing what someone else wants us to do, or what we think we should do dims our light.
Let’s not dim our lights. Let’s shine bright like diamonds.