You Can Be Anything, But You Don’t Have To Be Everything

There will be days where you will daydream of changing your name and running away with no communication or contact with anyone or anything. Don’t do that. It won’t be beautiful, it won’t be less complicated. It will be broken. It will be selfish and it will be cowardly.

Don’t write for others. That’s where you start to mess yourself up. That’s when then words don’t come. Don’t write for him. Don’t write for her. Don’t write for them. Write because you can’t sleep until you do, and then see what comes of it. Write for you. It won’t be selfish and it won’t be cowardly.

You cannot control every situation that comes your way, you cannot control the people that cross your path, you cannot control the elements that surround you, you cannot control the way in which people around you respond to you or your surroundings, but you can control yourself.

Regardless of the way your day turned, there was at least one moment of value and beauty. Take ten seconds and find that thing. Wear it around your neck. Say thank you for it, because your mom taught you to always be grateful.

If you have nothing you can lend to the conversation that uplifts, don’t speak. If you can’t speak life into a situation, don’t comment on it.

Stop whispering mean things in your own ears. Stop negating the nice words and filling up your head with the hurtful ones. There is enough in this life that is difficult and murky and saturated with hurt. Find the nice things – they’re there. Remember that you are someone’s daughter, someone’s son, someone’s sister, someone’s friend. Those people would not allow anyone to say or do anything harmful to you, so why would you allow yourself to?

People only have the power that you give them. If Gatsby had just let go of the green light, he would have lived.

You are going to say and do things that you do not mean. You are going to react in ways you did not anticipate. You are going to on occasion make decisions that are not your best. You are going to misread. You are going to misinterpret. It’s okay, I’ll still love you in the morning.

You are not too much. People will tell you that you are, and you are permitted to swiftly remove them from your life. Do not allow people who make you feel like you are difficult to love access to any portion of you. You are not now nor have you ever been too much. You are doing your very best, and I am proud of you.

When you were little, they told you ‘you can be anything.’ You have a planner filled with appointments and three jobs and punch cards for coffees and you are relentless with yourself and forgiving of everyone else. Yes, you can be anything, but you do not have to be everything.