It's All Relative

I would say I'm a grass-is-always-greener-on-the-other-side type of girl. Some might think this is pessimistic. I like to consider myself ambitious.

Whatever I'm doing, I always want to be moving on to the next step. When I was in high school, I wanted to get into journalism school. Once I was there, I was already looking to see where I wanted to work. Once I got a job as a reporter, I was desperately trying to figure out how I could continue this roving-reporter lifestyle without burning out in five years. Once my reporter contract ended and I had the freedom to find out what really I wanted, I was so busy running away from the real world being a server in a restaurant that I missed the opportunity to start a freelance career. Once I landed a gig doing travel content for a website, I was looking ahead to find out how I could get travelling instead of editing and researching the subject.

And for years, I imagined what it would be like to be a free bird, wandering the roads of Europe with my backpack affixed to my back, roaming from city to city. I imagined eating in France, swimming in the Mediterranean, museum-hopping in Germany. I saw myself meeting new people, and having a constant desire to learn, to journey, to be experiencing Europe.

I remember hearing stories from friends who had actually done it, listening to their exhaustion and annoyance at various culture differences. There was always a story of yearning for a McDonald?'s cheeseburger or some Kentucky Fried Chicken. I can recall thinking that they weren't truly experiencing it or that they must be missing something that only I would be able to appreciate.

Ah, but it's all relative, isn't it?

By the time I had spent four weeks with my backpack in France, I have to admit that I had very strong desires for an episode of Friends. There I was, in museum after museum, restaurant after restaurant, cultural experience after cultural experience and yet, all that I had dreamed of, all that I had wanted, was eventually being overshadowed by a longing to curl up on my couch with some popcorn and an episode of ER.

You can always dream about how you will react in a situation but you never really know how it will go until you're smack in the middle of it. This is why I encourage everyone to get outside their comfort zone and really challenge their boundaries.

I am now settled into a fantastic job, working with authors and the media and getting to do so many different activities in a day that I can't list them all. If someone had told me I would be living in Ireland at the age of 28, I probably wouldn't have believed them. I feel I have achieved so much, and maybe other people think that of me as well, but it's all relative.

My family is still far away. My friends are continuing on different life paths. And in a way, I am perhaps stuck in a young, free, bohemian lifestyle that doesn't afford me the luxury of having much in common with people who own houses and have children.

I'm not unhappy. Quite the contrary, in fact; however, I am learning that everyone lives a life of relativity. Everyone's frustrations are relative to everyone else's.

Perhaps that's what makes us all so alike. There will always be something in our lives that we wish were different. This is not pessimistic, but simply realistic and ambitious.

For if we were to settle and be completely happy with everything that was around us, what would challenge us to explore?