Going Against the Grain

People have expectations of us. That’s just something we can’t run away from. If it’s not your mum it’s your dad, your brother, your sister, your children, your spouse, your friends, your employer or even your enemies! Granted, all expectations come about due to different reasons but they all seem to want something for you.  

More often than not you don’t really want to live up to these expectations. You probably have your own expectations for yourself and they are probably very different from what everyone thinks they are. In this age where everything is hinged on education certificates with big names and careers to go with them many people get lost in the madness and very few realize it because, well, isn’t everyone going back to school?

Have you ever woken up one day and felt like you are in the wrong place? Like, what am I doing here? And you can’t really answer this one question that will justify why you do what you do. That’s a scary thing to realize considering you spend half of your day doing that which you don’t know.

The thought of leaving or quitting is absolutely terrifying and the thought of staying, draining to say the least. You’ll think about what everyone else will say or think (yet surprisingly these very people don’t spend your dreary days and tired nights with you) and you don’t want to go through the agony of dealing with their questions. That’s mainly because you’re afraid that your answers won’t be satisfactory to them. But whose satisfaction should we be looking at here?

Wishes and dreams

I wish I could stay home and raise my kids, I wish I could go back to school and get a PhD, I wish I could quit my high-flying job to be a farmer, I wish I could raise my kids and keep my high-flying job, I wish I could just sing for a living, I wish I could be a hand model, I wish I could tell a story with my photography, I wish I could be a father… why not?

I believe that the fact that this thought more than crossed your mind counts for something. It didn’t stop at being a thought though. With time it’s become a nagging feeling that you can’t wish away anymore. It shakes your core but your response is to brush it off. Why do we do that? Stop ourselves from getting where we would like to be?

Sometimes the dream (yes, it’s a dream until you wake up and do something about it) may seem so farfetched that you wonder whether it is truly possible. For me, this is where my God comes in. It’s been said that if your dream is something you can easily achieve with your own effort or strength then it’s not really big enough. So if you’re going to dream, DREAM BIG.

Divine sustenance 

Going against what is expected of you isn’t easy at all. It is a sure recipe to lose fans along the way. It is a painful process that will sometimes have you doubting whether you truly made the right choice, heard the right voice. But when the satisfaction comes in, going to bed with a feeling of real accomplishment, you know deep down in your heart that you made the right move.

God doesn’t take you somewhere He can’t sustain you. In fact, He does this crazy thing where on paper you look like you should be falling apart but when we look at you it looks like you have a lot going for you. Call it whatever you want but I call it grace.

I’m not using religion to hide behind all the decisions I’ve made along the way because some of them were horrible. I’m just telling you what I’ve seen happening in my own life and others close to me. That going after your dream, doing what you feel is right may not be easy but is well worth it in the end. That the steps of the righteous are ordered by God and everything works for good to those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. Someone somewhere said being different, going against the grain of society, is the greatest thing in the world. Dare to be great this year!