Baggage.

First of all, I got the afore mentioned tattoo but I'll address that at a later date. It won't look up to par for a couple more weeks, because it just finished peeling and it's now very faded. I'll post pictures when it's fully healed.

But that's off topic.

Today has been one of deep thoughts, which has become somewhat the norm. I used to be able to just do nothing and not have my mind swirling, but that's not so anymore. Sometimes, I find myself longing for earlier days and sometimes, I wish I could just skip ahead to the future where everything will be purrfect but then I snap back to reality [oh, there goes gravity].

I have many opinions, some of which people agree with, some of which people don't, some of which people aren't sure about. The topic of today's post is one that people aren't generally sure about.

One of my favorite sayings that applies in most any situation is, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Honest to God, and I've been through and witnessed a lot of stuff during my mere 20 years on this earth, that one is always true. You can give me any situation imaginable, and I'll show you how you can work it to your advantage.

My next theory about life is one that I came up with all on my own, although I doubt that it's an original piece of thought. "Baggage is what makes us interesting."

I've said that before in passing to a few of my friends and I've always gotten the same general response. An initial "Are you crazy? Who ever had that idea?" followed by a "Hmm." And then some silence while they ponder. But it's true. Think about it [think, think about it].

You always hear people say, "Oh, but so-and-so has so much baggage..." with a little bit of dismay in their voice, as if to say that if so-and-so didn't have so much baggage, they would be more desirable as a person. I've had friends who had no baggage and I've had friends who had so much baggage that they could hardly stand on their own. Sure, it can be draining to be their crutch all the time but that's only the case if the baggage-laden person in question is so busy wallowing in self-pity that they can't see the bright side of things. All you have to do is abide by my first saying, and you'll realize that any baggage you have will make you a stronger person if only you let it.

Essentially, the idea is this. Shit happens in life to everybody. One person may get pooped on more than the person next to them but it doesn't mean you were standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. You should feel blessed to have been pooped on and you should take your poop and do two things with it: 1) learn from your poopty experience, and 2) share your wisdom about said poop with every person to whom your advice may be helpful.

So in the end, I decided that I don't want to skip ahead because it's our experiences in life that make us who we are. I don't want to miss a thing, even if there isn't anything super-fabulous happening, because without today I will never get to tomorrow. And even if I could, it would be void and meaningless because I wouldn't be able to put it in the context of my life.