Happy, Happy, Happy

     It seems that in the last few weeks I've heard quite a few of my clients tell me how unhappy they are in life.  Some seem to be content with the fact that they manage day to day, but wish that they had ultimately chosen a different path in life.  The issues with life seem to vary from career choice, family, spouses, money, location, etc.  Now I understand that one probably can't be happy all the time, and that life has a way of beating us up sometimes.  However typically a person can make a change in their life to have their happiness.  I wish these people would because as they live their life in some sort of a lie they are not only hurting themselves, but they are hurting others that are involved with them, be it family, friends, coworkers, whomever.
     Why does it matter to me?  Well it's been almost a full year since my surgery fiasco and stroke, and having Crohn's means that I've altered how I view my life on this Earth.  I'm 24 years old and I have a great grasp on the fact that our time here on this Earth in this form of a human is limited.  Why would anyone want to live it being anything but happy?  Happiness, as I view it, can not come from possessions, money, or things, but comes from the company one keeps and the memories you make.  To quote a television show (The Real Housewives on BRAVO) " Money just gives you Money."
     To me, happiness is success.  I use to think that I wanted to be a successful business woman, and make 6 figures while working 80 hours a week, and have a family some day.  That's way too many hats to wear, and with my Crohn's I haven't even been able to work a 40 hour week let alone 80.  So my happiness is simple.  It's to do something I love, and currently that's cleaning houses.  I'm good at what I do and I have my OCD to thank for that, but I also enjoy knowing that some people rely on us because for one reason or another they are incapable of cleaning their house.  Customer Service has always been my line of work, and will continue to be forever even if I stop cleaning I will most likely pick another career that deals with human interaction....I enjoy and find satisfaction in knowing that what I do no matter how small can impact a person in a positive light.
     My love life...at 24 years old I can say I have found my soul-mate, the one, my other half, & any other extremely cliche name for my life partner.  His name is Seth, and I have known him since the 5th grade.  We grew up 1 mile from one another, and in 5th grade we "dated" for the school year.  Of course dating in 5th grade consisted of holding hands on the bus, and sometimes sitting together at lunch.  Needless to say our young love didn't last, and with the school year ending he broke up with me (I'll tell that story in a different blog post), but we were friends throughout our time in school.  I am a year older than him so I graduated and went off to college, but came to his graduation party from High School and with social media we kept in contact.  Almost every 6-8 months we 'd ask each other for life updates.  Well, we reconnected in January of 2012 & we've been together ever since.  I love him with all my heart, and finally understand when people who were truly in love use to tell me that when you find that person you just know.  I know that I am truly blessed, and on the day when we finally do wed it will be till death do us part relationship.  This may come from the fact that we both have parents who divorced, but I know that I will marry my best friend.  I use to tell my mom that no matter how long I had to wait to get married that I would because I refused to go through "the BIG D & I don't mean Dallas."  I'd become a crazy cat lady before I married just to marry, so when our day comes, and I walk down that aisle I will know that he and I are my favorite love story.
     Money is always a problem, and will probably always be a problem.  There never seems to be enough.  Seth and I spent our last couple of weeks dreaming of winning the powerball, and what we would do with our winnings.  It was great to dream of having 300 million lying around, but sadly we don't live anywhere near Florida so we did not win the jackpot or anything at all.  We still enjoy playing numbers and will continue too, but we understand we have to work for what we have.  We are currently saving for a house, and with me being self-employed my income can not count so we are limited in our mortgage approval.  So we are looking at houses, and hoping we find that one that can be our starter home, and trying to save money for a deposit while trying to down some bills to help boost our approval amount.  Student loans suck, end of discussion!  But we are working at it, and know that this will take time, and that patience truly is a virtue in this instance.  So money limits us all the time, but money won't make me happy....it just makes it easier, and maybe someday I will have an exurbanite amount of money, but I don't need it to be happy.
     Basically what I'm trying to say is find happiness in what you have, and the situations you are handed.  This life is a gift and I hope you treat it that way.  I know that I will probably die from Crohn's complications, and I hope that it's 90 years from now, but the likelihood of that is small.  So I wake up everyday and am thankful I woke up and try to appreciate all the little things life gives or has given me.  And when life does get you down remember that with each sunset their is a new sunrise.  Enjoy this life because you only live once, and when you are on your death bed you don't want your one regret to be that you wish you had been happier.  Find your happy, and do whatever it takes to keep your happy.  Like Phil Robertson always says "HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY."
Have a great Sunday Y'all!