Choices

In the last few months I have seen my everyday life change from something familiar, loving and ordinary to something unfamiliar, sad and unsure. This is normal of people who move 3000 miles away to a brand new city, knowing no one. In my case, heartache and loss also found its way into my luggage as I moved to Seattle. But, after two months of living here, I can finally say that I see a turning point and life is becoming happy again.

Jade and Ben visited from Florida this past weekend. I was so ecstatic to have some familiar faces around and to show them all of my new adventure spots (blog posts of these advenutures are coming soon!). During their stay we hiked up a really nice mountian trail. As we were hiking I thought to myself about life and choices. I realized that life is just a bunch of choices that we make. Some are big, and some are small, but each one effects you and how you live. 

For example, if I choose to have a donut each day for breakfast, it will give me delight each morning as I look forward to the donut, but over time I will have added extra sugar to my body, which could potentially add extra weight and hurt my health. Now, this is not a post about dieting. I am sure most poeple don't eat donuts every day, and sometimes utility from looking forward to a donut some mornings outweighs the health risks. 

But, here is my point- every day, hour, minute, second is just another opportunity to choose to do something in your life. We are the deciders of how we spend that time. Yes, people have obligations to spouses, children, family and friends that take away from your own personal choices, but we can choose to live life how we want to. AND, if you do have obligations to others, you should still take moments for yourself, or make better choices for your family.

I realized that I have so many opportunities for choices in my life. I am financially independent, I don't have a spouse and I don't have children. I have the opportunity to make choices every day to live the life that I have dreamed of. I made a choice about a month ago to stop eating unnecesary meals when I was sad or nervous. I wasn't sure if I would be able to stop myself from this habit, but I have gone this far without any falls and I have a sense of more self control in my life. I feel pride in myself for not giving up on my passion of healthy eating. 

This accomplishment made me realize that I have enough self control to make other choices in my life that will benefit me. I am now taking a look at all of my finances, lifestyle and routine to begin living the life that I've always admired other people living.

This all came together last night as I had some friends over to play cards. I looked around my house and could see an aura of my personality in the room. I saw happy, laughing people enjoying conversation and friendships. Something inside of me shivered and I realized that this is the life I want to live, and I'm continuing to make these decisions to bring myself closer to these moments. I still feel heartache and sadness, but I have more faith and happiness in myself, which makes me feel like I can get past the bad moments. 

My next choice is to use my three-day-weekends to travel and explore the area I'm in. At first I thought, why would I travel without someone else? It was like I wanted a signifigant other to go with me, but I remembered my time in Italy and the weekend trips I would go on alone. I remembered having so much fun exploring by myself, so there is no reason why I can't do that now. Plus, I have to give both my readers something to look forward to. ;-)