Crawl
I can successfully say after six months of post-graduation bliss that the adult world is a scary, confusing place.
A constant phrase that has come out of my mouth recently is “I am not emotionally stable enough for this right now.” A cute video of two puppies who are best friends? Not emotionally stable enough for this right now. Adele’s new album? *Cue emotional breakdown because DEFINITELY not emotionally stable (I haven’t even listened to the whole thing…).* The episode of “The Office” where Jim proposes to Pam? Nope. Can’t. A video of a family meeting their adopted child for the first time? STOP IT RIGHT NOW.
Basically, I feel like my life is one big confusing mess.
I used to think I was that girl who had everything figured out. I had a plan. And when I have a plan, you better move out of the way because I move forward full speed ahead. But for the first time in my life, I have no clear cut plan. As Crater face from Grease would say “Rules? There are no rules.” “Plan? There is no plan.” And this is driving me crazy.
I think this all stems down to me wanting to be successful. I want to be financially (and emotionally, LOL) stable, have a job that helps others in some aspect, and love what I do. Sounds easy, right? It could be. But I’m learning that life is not always like that.
I very recently just bought my first car (yay for adulating!). I not only learned about adult things like credit scores, how to get a loan and the differences between Hondas, Toyotas, and Fords, but I also learned many valuable life lessons, one of those lessons being that things take time. There are many things in life that will not appear instantly. It will be hard work at first.
I shopped around for two weeks before I decided on a car. Throughout this car shopping experience, I met many different types of car salesmen. Some were very good at their job, and some were very questionable as to why they are doing what they do.
However, my favorite was a lesson from a car salesman at a Honda dealer, an older man who reminded me of my grandfather. The particular car I was looking at had two models on the lot; one was an older model and the other was just a couple of years old. I wanted the nice, newer, shinier, upgraded model more than the older, average, higher mileage car, which obviously was more expensive than the other. I think he could tell in my eyes I badly wanted the new model, so he said some words that really have applied well in my life - car shopping and beyond.
“I know you like the newer one,” he said. “But sometimes we have to crawl before we walk and walk before we run.”
This humbled me and made me so appreciative of where I am. Even though I know I may not be exactly where I want to be now, I’m crawling. And soon enough I’ll have some things figured out enough to walk. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll be running one day. Things take time; I will get where I want to be by baby steps and hard work. And thanks to a wonderful car salesman, I will get there in a cute new (to me) car.
[Photo by Ally Willis.]
