Day 219 (Two-Hundred & Nineteen) of 365 days
The grass is greener on neither side. Maybe your friend is going to graduate school and you are not. Maybe you are going to graduate school and your friend is not. Who is happier? You could think something horrific like, “I would never abandon my job and my coworkers to go back to school.” Or, “Other people could never accomplish what I’m doing in graduate school.”
Honestly? If you want to go to graduate school, just go. If you don’t want to go to graduate school, don’t go. Either way, it doesn’t guarantee career success. You are probably just as happy with your own decisions as your friend is happy with his or her own decisions. There are some amazing people in top positions who didn’t go to grad school. There are some people who have left a job to go to grad school and then had problems finding work afterward. Maybe you didn’t know that there are some jobs you literally cannot get unless you go to grad school, like being a tenured college professor or a public school teacher. Sometimes people really value education, and the educational system, and never want to stop learning, sometimes even seeing it as religious fulfillment or as self-care to nurture the mind. You could argue either way that somebody is better off, or no better off, with having gone to graduate school. It’s expensive, and you could have donated the money to charity. Somebody else would spend the entire tuition on a new car when their old car worked fine. Overall, you don’t know who is happier. Basically, it’s probably about the same.
We never know what’s going on behind closed doors or what’s happening on the inside. Whether mental or just over exhaustion because of the things out of their control. There are pros and cons to every situation and the truth is, no life is ever perfect.
Frequently, I’d find myself wanting things I never had. I’d find myself miserable for the things I don’t have or the kind of stuff I wasn’t able to do. I envy other people for they got more time for themselves. A time to relax and do whatever they can. A time to explore more places, hobbies, and interests. I was too focused on looking for something else while forgetting the things that I already have.
I had to admit that sometimes I don’t focus on my own grass. If I’m not focusing enough on my own green grass, everything looks so much better from afar — but it’s just a constant reminder that we never know the full story of how their grass turned out so green.
You never know the story and the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. They must have worked so hard why their grass turned out greener. It’s not an overnight fortune. Neither is it possible for a human to stand on both sides of the fence at the same time nor is it possible for them to control their rising jealousy. Therefore, it is not that the grass is greener on either of the sides rather it’s human eyes which sees everything to be better on the opposite side for the day humans could stand on both the sides at the same time they would see the grass to be equally green on either side.
Life can never be perfect on the other side. But I’m learning to appreciate what I have and live in my moment.
