"I believe I deserve something beautiful" -Elizabeth Gilbert
If you focus on how your needs are being filled rather than how your wants are left lacking, you can find a whole other level of peace and contentment that will permeate your life and eventually lead to your wants becoming subtly sated. So many times we fixate on how our wants are being supposedly ignored, and we can allow ourselves to totally torpedo how our needs are being amazingly fulfilled.
We all have those friends that we see from time to time, and every encounter is filled with laughter and fun memories. However, those aren't the moments when friendships are made strong. I have people that I could hang out with thousands of times who I would feel as close to day 40 as I did day 1. Epic memories are great, but it's those small, fleeting moments of interaction where your guard begins to fall where true friendship is forged.
Online dating has made us hyper critical of everyone else while simultaneously complaining that we can't find a man or woman who loves us for who we really are. We are quick to dismiss people we may actually be quite compatible with simply because they don't fit what we have envisioned for ourselves or because we fear what other people might think or say.
In a world of uncertainty, there is nothing more important than knowing 100% for sure that someone, somewhere out in the wildly rolling waves of life, is keeping the lighthouse lit just for you.
Today, we don't need a village to survive. But I would argue that we do need a village to thrive.
When you tell someone 'thank you', or 'miss you', or 'wish you were here', it's saying that you notice them and you're grateful for what they bring into your life. You observe what they do when you're around, and you care when they are not around.
The standards for dating, in my eyes, have been playing a game of limbo for years: how low can you go? How low can you go? And yet when you try to stick to a higher principle, it can seem discouraging because that immediately shrinks the eligible bachelor pool down to 1.5 men in a 100 mile radius. Yet I have decided that when I am ready for another go-around on the roller-coaster of romance, I will not settle for less than I deserve.
My most recent breakup has led me to contemplate all of my past relationships. When you're in smack in the middle and full of new love, they seem amazing. When they're removed from your life, you sob in wrenching pain; eventually, months later, you wonder what you ever saw in them and roll your eyes at your past self and her choices. But for me, years down the road, I am thankful for all of my failed relationships because they each have shaped a part of who I am.
A broken heart is made up of muffled sobs and hot tears pouring down your face. It's made up of deep shuddering breaths and wiping the back of your hand across your nose, heedlessly smearing snot across your cheek. It's made up of red, swollen eyes and deep breaths that end when another wave of hurt crashes over you like the slap of the ocean on a windy day.
The ability to have a career where I am able to get a taste of pretty much every other job on the planet is a beautiful thing. The best thing is, while I'm teaching my students, they're really teaching me.
Hannah Elizabeth 