Dash of Sass: Sometimes it Takes Looking Back to See How Far You’ve Come

Quote of the Day:

“I always knew looking back on the tears would make me laugh, but I never knew looking back on the laughs would make me cry.” ~Unknown

The Single Woman Says:

For all of my beautiful, intelligent, accomplished readers who are graduating from one phase of their lives to another; whether it be in school, work, love, or simply life, here’s what Life 101 has taught me:

You probably won’t get the big jobs and make the big money – at least not right away. You might have to start off at menial jobs that force you to dress as a wizard and stand on the side of the road holding a sign that says “Magical Move-In Specials” (or at least, that’s how some of us started out.) You will probably get stepped on in the career world, somewhere along the way. Someone you thought was your friend will prove to be less than loyal. You will get hurt, get fired, be underpaid, and overworked. The good news is – you’ll meet people along the way and have experiences that will make you come to life in ways you never thought possible. Every time you get knocked down, you’ll grow stronger. And every time you refuse to get knocked down, you’ll be introduced to a new side of yourself that you never knew existed. And either way it goes – you’ll have friends there to either pick you up off the floor, or stand and clap and watch you soar.

Things that once broke your heart will make you smile. Things that once upon a time, you thought would kill you, will heal you. Moments that seemed at the time like they were the most painful you would ever go through will stand as landmarks now, for the moment your entire life changed. You will be able to look upon those times that you thought you’d never laugh again, and be silently thankful for whoever or whatever it was that walked away, because without losing them, you would have never found yourself. You will, years from now, sit at a restaurant with your best friend and giggle for hours on end at the bad jobs, the even worse relationships, and the unanswered prayers that remained unanswered so you could answer the call of your true destiny. And you won’t regret a single thing…because every last bit of it made you who you are today.

You most likely won’t remember everything you learned in school – at least not book-wise. You WILL, however, remember the moments that mattered the most: Your first kiss. Your first love. Your first big heartbreak. The friends that were lost, either to death or circumstance or distance. The moments of sheer joy and beauty with your friends that would never quite be repeated once the veil of innocence was removed from your eyes. The boys you pined for in high school or college – now 40 pounds added and lots of hair subtracted. You’ll wonder what you ever saw in them, and you’ll silently thank God they didn’t see the same thing in you. You’ll especially remember the moment you walked across the stage and accepted your diploma – because it will be not just the moment that your education ended, but also your childhood.

You’ll learn, as you get older, that rules are made to be broken. Be bold enough to live life on your terms, and never, ever apologize for it. Go against the grain, refuse to conform, take the road less traveled instead of the well-beaten path. Laugh in the face of adversity, and leap before you look. Dance as though EVERYBODY is watching. March to the beat of your own drummer. And stubbornly refuse to fit in.

Value the friends that have been there all along, because when the others disappear and leave you heartbroken, those people that have been there all along will be the ones that are there to pick up the pieces.

Because “In the end, you always go back to the people that were there in the beginning.” ~Dawson’s Creek

Yep. Sometimes it takes looking back to see how far you’ve come…