Who Are You Living For?

The last few years of my life have been like a foggy haze.  I had no real focus, I was just sort of floating.  I was numb, and I didn't even realize.  Luckily, life decided to shake me out of my daze and wake me up.  After losing a job, an apartment, and ending a relationship, I packed up my things and moved 400 miles away. I had no idea what I was doing.

At first I was depressed.  I didn't know if I had made the right decision, if I would find happiness here. I was completely alone in a new city. I missed home and my old life, no matter how unhappy I had been.  I started thinking that I had made a mistake. But then it happened.  I was driving around the lake.  I had every single window down,  and Tom Petty was blaring.  The sweet summer air blew my hair in circles around my head, and I felt a sense of freedom that I had been missing for years.  The only person I had to answer to was myself.  I was living completely for me.

I realized that the reason for my unhappiness had not been a place, or a person, or a job.  It had been my motivation.  I had let the expectations of others, their wants, become my driving force.  I was living for other people, putting all of my effort in to making them happy, even when that meant my happiness was left behind.  I was being who everyone else wanted me to be, and, honestly, I didn't like that girl at all.

But now! Now I was whoever I wanted to be. I had the freedom to find myself, even if who I found wasn't what everyone expected or wanted.

So here is my question for you: Who are you living for?  Are you doing the things you do because they are going to make you happy? Or are you doing them for appearances, to impress others, to gain their approval, to make them happy? 

You are the captain of your own destiny.  You are the sole champion of your life.  Do it justice. I promise that if you do, you will find true happiness.