If it's not broken, don't fix it.
My Dad used to say that a lot. I just rolled my eyes because I knew it was just an easy excuse for him to not do something. "Why fix it if it's not broken," is like saying, why mess with a good thing? But . . . what if we could make it better?
When I was little, I used to watch people passing by me in public and I'd always think to myself, "Wow, I'm glad I'm not them." I'm sure we all have big plans for our lives. Some of us imagine ourselves having exciting careers, living in a beautiful city and raising a family. Others may decide they want to go to travel and explore throughout their lives. There are so many different ways we imagine our futures playing out, and we all like to think that they will be exciting.
All of our futures are planned out to be thrilling, yet I'm sure we've all met those people where we have to stop and think, "How could they be so happy with their lives? Why are they just settling for this? Why don't they make it better?"
I can understand the, "If it's not broke, don't fix it," attitude for some things but not my life.
I loved my friend, whom we shall call Jasmine, very dearly, but I couldn't imagine growing up in her family. Jas was awesome, but her family was so subdued and strict. Her mother, especially, used to remind me of a robot, kind of. Get up. Go to work. Come home. Cook. Clean.
What kind of life is that? If every child plans for their futures to be daring and different, enjoyable and entertaining, then why are there so many people living like this?
Why do you settle?
Why are you just satisfied?
Why can't your strive to make it better, to improve, even if nothing is broken?
These are the questions I pose.
Nobody starts out believing their life will turn out of that like Jasmine's mother, but somewhere along the way, something trips up. Gone are the dreams of being a world-renowned photographer, and you end up as a housewife or at a desk job in suburbia.
"That's not gonna be me. That's never gonna be me."
Who is it going to be, then?
So I ask you, why settle? Even now, as children and teenagers, why do we just settle. Why are we so comfortable with our lives? Get uncomfortable. Do something new. Something fresh.
To quote the book "Tuck Everlasting", "What we Tucks have, you can't call it living. We just . . . are. We're like rocks, stuck at the side of a stream."
Although none of us have become immortal by drinking from a spring like in that book, I think that quote relates a lot to this article. Don't just be a rock sitting on the side of a stream, watching the water move past. Jump in.
Don't settle. Don?t be satisfied. Live. Truly live, because you can only do it once.
"If it's not broken, don't fix it," it's true. Don't just let your life lie there. Improve on it.
Glitsygrl
