My Collection

This morning I was listening to Taylor Swift while on the treadmill, you know, like you do- and I had an epiphany: to make sense of this world I will become a collector- a collector of experiences. A collector of happiness, pain, sadness, excitement and passion. I will collect the good and the bad so that I can understand the depth and breadth of human capacity. We may not seek out some of these experiences on purpose, but they happen and we need to accept that they can happen to all of us eventually. Mourning, grieving, pain and death- they are all inevitable and universal. If you are lucky enough to experience great love, you will eventually experience great loss. Given a long enough timeline, everyone will share these same experiences and it is how we react and learn from them that is the true test. So far, here are some gems from my collection:

Embarrassment.

Hatred.

Jealousy.

Being on stage.

Falling in love.

Sex.

Graduating college.

Living dollar to dollar.

Being dumped.

Engagement. Twice.

Devastation.

Cancer scare.

Marriage.

Infidelity.

Labor.

Addiction.

C-Section. Twice.

Buying a house.

Bailing someone out of jail.

Separation.

Filing Divorce papers. Twice.

Unconditional love.

Heartbreak.

Soul mates.

Best friends.

Rejection.

Death.

Panic attacks.

Car wrecks.

Getting my dream job.

A million Dave Matthews Band concerts.

Unrequited love.

Supernatural.

Regret.

Happy tears while crossing off an item from my bucket list.