We hate change. It’s that simple. As soon as something we’re used to having is taken away, even if we weren’t huge fans of it in the first place, we feel a gap in our lives. But not everything, or everyone, we lose is a loss. More times than not we grow from the losses we face in life. It leads us to becoming stronger people and opens doors to opportunities that are better than we ever could have imagined. Here are some of the things we may lose that aren’t always losses:
The relationship we thought would last forever
At some point in our lives, we all find a person who we believe we will be with for the rest of our lives. Come to find out, they weren’t even going to last until the end of the month. We’re heartbroken like anyone in the situation would be, but once we get over them and realize we’re better off on our own, that’s when we can finally be happy again. It’s important, especially during our teenage years and early 20s, to find ourselves and who we are without being defined by another person. Although we may feel as though we lost the only person in the world we were meant to be with, “losing” this person may open up other doors that enable us to finding the person we are really supposed to be with. One of my favorite quotes is: “One day, someone will walk into your life and make you realize why it never worked out with anyone else.” -Unknown.
The job you’ve had for years
Getting laid off from a job that you rely on to pay your bills or buy things with is always devastating; although, it could lead to other opportunities that change your life far more than the old job ever could. A lot of times when people lose a job, they become more motivated to go back to school or find a different job that offers them a lot more than they were previously getting. When one door closes, another one opens.
The friend you thought would always be there
A friend breakup is sometimes even harder than a relationship breakup. Losing a friend that you thought would always be there to their new boyfriend/girlfriend or to their new group of friends hurts like no other. Loyalty is one of the most important traits for a friend to have, and a real friend won’t leave you out in the dust for people they believe to be better than you. “Losing” a friend who stops caring about you, even after everything you’ve done for them, is their loss rather than yours. They’re the ones who lost a good person in their life, not you. Remember that.
The idea in your head of what you want to do with your life
When we’re young we want to be princesses and superheroes, then we grow up a little and want to be doctors and lawyers. We first start college with the perfect idea of what we want to do with our lives wrapped up in our minds until we realize that our dreams are no longer what we want. Now what do we do? Just because you change your mind about the rest of your life doesn’t mean you won’t discover what you want to do down the road. The likeliness of your old dreams making you happy now are unrealistic because our feelings change and our aspirations sway to what will make us happy in the long term. You’ll find what you’re looking for, don’t worry.
The unhealthy relationship you have with a family member
Losing family is harder than losing anyone else because family is supposed to be forever. However, a lot of people’s lives don’t work this way. People lose the support of family members all the time when they don’t see eye to eye on important aspects of their lives or become selfish and choose something less important over a family member. It hurts more than anything when someone chooses someone else or their contrasting beliefs to yours over your relationship with them. Although you may feel as if you’re losing them, what you’re really losing is an unsupportive influence in your life which would just weigh you down anyways.
The house you grew up in
This is something everyone goes through at some point, but when you’ve lived in the same house your entire life and suddenly you don’t anymore, it’s a sad feeling. Families move away, kids go off to college, and households get smaller leading to the inevitable sale of your childhood home. You feel as though you’re selling all of the memories along with it, but that’s not true. Memories will always remain even if the concrete place you made them on is gone. Moving on allows you to make new memories while still allowing you to keep the old ones close to your heart wherever you go.
