I recently met a new friend whose life looked a lot like the life I once imagined for myself.
A well-respected job, a beautifully put-together home, an elegant way of living. She had things I wanted — and some things I knew probably wouldn’t be part of my life, no matter how hard I tried, haha.
I remember feeling quite envious of her.
And, if I’m honest, a little ashamed of myself too. Standing next to her life, I suddenly felt like such a small potato.
Not in a bitter way. I genuinely liked her. I just looked at her life and thought, I would have liked that too.
That night, probably trying to make myself feel a little better, I started thinking about my own life.
The people in it. The things I’m building. The choices I’ve made. The things that take up my days now, and the things that have become important to me along the way.
And I realised our lives had simply gone in very different directions.
There are things in her life I would still love to have. But there are also things in mine that I wouldn’t trade away.
I think sometimes we get so caught up looking at what someone else has that we forget to give ourselves any credit for what we’ve built.
The funny thing is, while I was looking at her life thinking, I wish I had that, someone else could easily be looking at mine and thinking the same thing.
So this is what I want to remind myself — and anyone who happens to come across this post:
Be proud of yourself.
Not because your life is perfect, or because you should stop wanting more. Just be proud of who you’ve become, what you’ve chosen, and what you’ve built along the way.
It’s your life. You made it yours.