Different Worlds

We’re all different. Groundbreaking statement, I know.

I spent the weekend traveling to a different city for work, although I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have time for some play (and of course, some observation to write about in the Phoenix airport as I continued to people watch).

We all live in different places. We all have different families, different interests.

We’re all extremely different.

But among those differences, one thing seems to remain consistent—we all feel that we are at the center.

Because to us, we are.

And that’s not a bad thing. It’s not a selfish thing, or a naïve thing. It’s not a self-serving characteristic or entitled trait—it’s a fact.

For each individual person, their world is the only world.

And that’s okay.

What’s even more okay, is that we all have the ability to mold our world exactly the way we want (minus the bills, obligations, and other expectations of course).

It overwhelms me really, the possibility we each have to shape our world into what we want, or into something entirely different than what we currently have. To some, a high-rise apartment overlooking the ocean in a city is their world, their familiarity. To others, it’s a log cabin in a small town with one school. To some it’s one religion, to others it’s another.

The list goes on. And, neither is right, and neither is wrong.

They’re just different.

Respecting those differences, helping with those differences, and considering those differences is what's important.

Because there are so many options. So many issues. So many choices. So many worlds.

Over the weekend one of my friends said, “I almost don’t want to visit it there (another city), because I don’t need to see another awesome place I could live—I’m having a hard enough time deciding already.”

It’s interesting that we almost want to squander ourselves in fear of being too overwhelmed with how amazing the world is, in fear of seeing too many other people’s worlds.

I often get overwhelmed and anxious over how many things I want to learn, how many skills I want to master, how many places I want to see, how many things I want to do—how many worlds I want to create.

What I think is important to remember here is that none of us can do it all. None of us can master the guitar, learn another language, get a graduate degree, work in advertising, own our own company, write a book, live abroad, master all aspects of our industry, see every single country, live in seven different places, save money, own a cabin, and oh yeah, have a family, all in one lifetime, or at least, not right away and certainly not all at once (in case you didn’t get it—those are a few of my aspirations… not even the entire list).

As I reflect on my need to know it all, do it all—be it all, I’m realizing that that’s not just going to happen.

And that’s okay.

We all have our different worlds and we are at the center of them. We all have things we are better at than others, we all have different experiences and things we’ve seen, we all have things that separate us from the person sitting next to us.

And that’s what makes life so great—people so great.

We all have our strengths, weaknesses, experiences—we all have our worlds.

But when they’re put together, we create things, we solve problems, we find solutions.

And so, individually, we can’t do it all, but together, we can do a lot.

And I guess it’s time that we all come to terms with our own lives. That we shape them how we want, but realize we can’t do every single thing we want to do, but that we can do a lot of it. And that by integrating others lives with ours, we can see more—we can see a lot.

*This started out as a blog about individuals being self-centered and getting worked up over miniscule problems and events—that took a turn as it usually does, apparently I needed to learn this today.