I Don't Know

“I don’t know.” The three words we all think, say, and feel. The three words that everyone feels at some point in their lives. The three words that we don’t like to admit we need to say.

We all get a little lost sometimes. We all are a little confused about what we want. We all don’t really know anything at all.

All of us.

We often get lost in the comparison of others.

“She has it so together. I wish I knew what I wanted like you. You are so determined and confident, I want to be like that.”

What we forget, is that everyone is confused.

Everyone has gone through phases in their life where they simply don’t know what’s next, what they’re doing, or where they’re going.

We all have exteriors that tell the world one thing, but we also all have interiors that most of the world will never see. We’re all human. We all fail, we all make mistakes, we all get lost.

And that’s a good thing, because it is when we come out of being lost that we learn the most important lessons of life, it is when we find what we are looking for that we begin to understand who we are to the deepest extent.

It’s easy to look at others talents and accomplishments and lose sight of our own. We forget everything we have done, everything we have the potential to do. We forget that everything we bring to the world matters just as much as the next person.

Sometimes, we think that we need to go find ourselves. And sometimes, we do. Traveling is one way to do this, letting go of everything you once knew, of your image and how you portray yourself to the world. Stepping out of your comfort zone and into a new place with new people and new experiences.

While this way is commendable, while I hope to be able to do this one day, I also want to point out another way – one that I have recently tried, one that I have recently seen do wonders.

That is the practice of perseverance and patience. Of, rather than making a drastic change in your life to find what you are looking for, waiting it out and getting through the hard times. By continuing your life as it is, by forcing yourself to believe that it will all work out, and by practicing gratitude for where you are now – you are shaping yourself into the person you are meant to become.

Because once the hard times are over, when you wake up one morning and realize that everything in your life has happened for a reason, that is when you will find what you’re looking for.

There’s something to be said for persevering through the rough patches and coming out on the other side. It doesn’t always require a big change or event. Sometimes it requires a new mindset, an ability to look back on the hard times and say, “I got through that on my own. I realized my problems on my own. I fixed them on my own.”