Time to Vent? Yes please

What is it with certain people who are so narrow-minded that they can never think outside of their little boxes? Why do they feel the need to belittle every person around them with opposing opinions and stances? Do they think they are God's gift to the human race?

I always have dreamed of a world with accepting personalities and conforming to change, which would benefit their lives and those lives around them. I guess I just don't understand how individuals can live in this amazing country and not take full advantage of the diversity available at their fingertips.

Maybe I'm different. I see no need in restricting my opinions or my views when there is a different one. This is how I grow....as a person, a nurse, a woman, and as a child of God. This is how i learn more and more about myself and the world I am living in. My opinions and views have changed from those as a young girl and they will continue to change as a I work my way through this life. But just because my opinions and views change does not mean that my values or my core beliefs have wavered or have been diminished in any way. In some sense, I feel as if those close-minded, arrogant individuals think that open-minded persons somehow compromise their values and beliefs when they take a different stance than them.

People change. People will always change. Times change. Times will always change. And most important, and to a certain extent, people will change with the times. Changing with the times does not compromise any core values or beliefs, it makes you a more complete and wholesome individual that can understand the society and pressures that you live in. And through understanding the current society and pressures, you can adjust accordingly and form your own unique opinions, which you are completely and utterly happy with.

Isn't happiness what we all strive for? Isn't it something that makes life worth living and somehow completes a void in each life? So, why is there resistance from those close-minded, arrogant individuals when an individual finds happiness that is not in-line with their certain beliefs? Does happiness have one definition? Does happiness have certain criteria that must be met?

I have learned this: Happiness is unique. Happiness is based on an individual by individual basis. There is not one equation that equals happiness. There are numerous equations that will equal happiness. If you live your life trying to use someone else's equation for happiness, then you will never be happy. Half the fun of life is finding your own equation for your own happiness. Of course, there is the fear of the unknown; however, once you have reached that point in your life and have found all the pieces of the equation for your happiness, everything prior to that point seems worth it. Everything in life takes work. Everything.

So, make yourself happy. Trying to please everyone else around you will only lead to anger and unhappiness.

And to my amazing fiancee, who makes me the happiest girl in the world, I love you.