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Dandelions are weeds. Unwanted parasites in our perfect green, grassy yards.
Right?
Or maybe that is what we have grown up believing given what society tells us.
Have you ever considered what your life would be like if you didn’t listen to what everyone told you what you should and shouldn’t do? What is right and what is wrong? What’s acceptable and what’s not?
Just think about that for a second. Would you have had the experiences you did when you were in elementary school? Would you have went to the college you did? Would you wear different clothes or value different things? Would you express yourself in a different manner, or learn to express yourself at all to begin with? Would you be living where you are, doing what you’re doing now? How much of your life did/do you choose for you, not for someone else’s opinion of what’s best for you?
I imagine we all like to think we’re independent, that we truly make our own choices.
I challenge you to think about some of the choices you have made in the past and really, really think about why you made the decision you did. Were you happy with it? Was it what you wanted? Was it the easy way out vs. the most beneficial way? Are you happy today because of that choice?
Sometimes, choices are made for us in life. You get in a car accident. You find out you were born with a disease that will affect your life immensely. A family member passes away. Sometimes we cannot prevent the things that happen to us. That’s life. In those instances we can either sulk over every little tragedy or try our best to get past it. However, the majority of things are our own choices. We have a decision at every intersection we are ever faced with. We can choose what we want to do for ourselves or we can choose what we want to do for someone else’s opinion. Whether it’s a boyfriend/girlfriend, a friend, a family member, a stranger at a coffee shop, or society in general. We can let someone else decide our fate, or we can choose our own regardless of how unorthodox it may or may not be to anyone else.
You are the only one who can decide your future.
What a powerful concept to grasp! YOU are the only one who can choose the life you live. Ah, yes hello! You do not have to do anything that you do not see valuing you, your future, your plans, your life, anything. It’s called ‘your life’ for a reason isn’t it?!
Now, I never said it would be easy. Honestly, I could almost guarantee making the choice to have what you want, what makes you happy, is going to be the most difficult path. Something worth having isn’t easy to get, and things easy to get aren’t worth having. Maybe you need to make sacrifices to get there. But not all decisions have to be final. Some decisions you can come back from and try the other if it doesn’t work. Part of life is not knowing if you will be able to come back from that decision or not, that’s why you should always choose them carefully.
Aren’t we all just as misunderstood as this weed in a land of grass? We all try to be like one another because we’re ‘supposed to’, but the dandelion doesn’t. It goes wherever it feels like and doesn’t care one bit if it fits in or not. It’s happy, bright and flourishes regardless of how much we try to kill it and its spirit. As a child, I always felt they were beautiful flowers I loved to collect until I was told otherwise. Who’s to say a dandelion doesn’t have its place? That maybe we should admire it more than we shame it.
When it comes down to it: You do you.
-J