Dear, guys – welcome back to Letters From Liz!
How is everyone enjoying June so far? Schools almost out, vacations are around the corner, and Summer 2019 officially rings in this week!
With that being said: a new month means a new installment of…
So, here’s a little backstory for the inspiration of this post: I was scrolling through my Instagram explore page and read a screenshot Twitter thread story (by TOBINSCO) about a man who decided to treat himself out one night to a five-star restaurant. He orders his meal but notices that the group of people that arrived before him ordered, and received their meals before he did. Wondering where his meal is, he asked the waiter that he’s been in the restaurant longer than the group in front of them have and hasn’t received his meal yet. The waiter responds, “Sir, your meal is being prepared by the top chef in the restaurant; your meal is special.” Not too long after, the top chef and 6 waiters come out with his meal, changed his simple order into a special one, and found out that the owner of the hotel that the restaurant was in was a long lost family member and was so happy to see this man’s face. He concludes the thread by stating:
Some people are ahead of you and are eating now, laughing at you and talking about how they are better, wiser, and smarter than you, how they are blessed, well connected, have money, and are enjoying life. You are waiting tirelessly wondering why it’s taking so long to break through. You endure mockery and humiliation. Maybe you have contemplated suicide, gone through depression, or suffered severe mental anxiety. Don’t worry! The owner of the world has seen you and doesn’t want you to be served a simple meal like those making a mockery of you. You are waiting long because yours is a special meal. It takes time to prepare. And, only chief chefs prepare them. Relax and wait for your meal.
Relax and wait for your meal. The owner of the world has seen you and doesn’t want you to be served a simple meal. You’re waiting long because yours is a special meal.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am here to tell you that just because yours hasn’t arrived yet, doesn’t mean it isn’t going to. It’s just taking more time to get to you, but at the end of the day, it will come. And I honestly have to keep telling myself that during this time in my life.
Personally, I’ve been really impatient about my “break-through” and quite frustrated about it for various reasons. A lot of it has to do with the fact that you see everyone you know living their “best lives” and growing into themselves, and it just feels like my “best life” is taking forever to come. Many of us may feel this way, shoot even the people who are portraying their lives on social media as “their best” may not feel that’s even their best in real life, and I know for a fact that there are people who look at me and may think I’m living my best life for the accomplishments I’ve made as a 25-year-old. In a nutshell, we all think other people are living their best lives and never believe that we are making any progress in our own lives. We are making progress even if we don’t see it, but we always want more, and we always want to feel like our hard work is paying off.
So, when opportunities are guided towards our way, we tend to think that maybe, just maybe, this is the thing we need to feel that sense of accomplishment, or taking that big of risk could open another layer of our lives to the point of life-changing. Recently, I was guided towards an opportunity that I definitely had to think long and hard for: is this really what I want to do? Is this my big break? Is this just another lesson of life that will bring me closer to my break-through? Will it just be a big mistake? The questions are endless. And even then, I’m not even sure if this would be the right thing for me to do.
Not all opportunities are meant to be life-changing, but ALL opportunities are meant to help you grow and guide you towards the path where your “special meal” is.
Lemme explain.
A lot of the opportunities I’ve had in the past, whether or not I took them, helped me find out the things I’m now passionate about, connect me with some really awesome people to work with, and are even possibly leading me in the direction that I ultimately belong in. Long story short, if I didn’t take those two summer classes during my junior year of college, I wouldn’t have graduated on time; if I didn’t get rejected from the graduate film school I applied for AND if I didn’t take the opportunity to get my Master’s degree at my college, I wouldn’t have gotten my Master’s, I wouldn’t have learned what I did in those courses, I wouldn’t have written the MA Thesis that I did, and I now wouldn’t have gotten the chance to work on and publish my thesis in an academic journal. It’s the literal butterfly effect.
Maybe all of this is leading me to my breakthrough. Maybe it isn’t. Maybe my breakthrough is hidden within a major life change I still have to make. Maybe it’s still a yearly process to get to my breakthrough. Honestly, who the hell knows, but always remember just because yours hasn’t come yet, doesn’t mean it never will. Don’t be so quick to give up on your dreams, talents, and passions because yours is taking a little longer than everyone else’s. Don’t be fooled by the fast-paces of this world, the coverups social media influences, and the constant competition. Screw everyone else’s process, you are on your own.
And I really do try to live by my own mantras and advice because it’s a matter of simply practicing what I preach. It’s funny, because in one of my therapy sessions, my therapist summed up pretty quickly that I am able to see faith in those around me who are struggling and give them some insight that everything is going to be just fine, yet it feels like I can’t be my own cheerleader and tell myself the same exact thing, no matter how similar the situations may be. I pretty much responded with, “if you were to define me in a sentence, that would be it.”
It’s honestly a matter of believing in yourself and believing that you are worthy of good things by putting in hard work, your determination, and everything else that you are confident about putting on the table. Hard work never really goes to waste in life, it’s only when you’ve stopped trying that it does.
So be patient with your special meal. It’s probably going to be the best meal of your life when it arrives at your table.
Letters From Liz. 