There's nobody to blame but yourself.

I am not going to take credit for the idea of THIS posting because it's my sister-in-law's thought and I am sharing it because I believe it to be true AND I have a story to go along with it.

How many times have you said to yourself or heard someone else say, "I hate living here!" or "I'm sick of this place!" or "This place sucks!"? Sound familiar? I'm sure it does. I've heard it from many and have admittedly said it myself. It's funny that we can be so blinded by ourselves that we take the time to blame our surroundings, where we live, or the people we are with for our unhappiness and not take the time to look at ourselves.

Here's my story: I got married in 2000, in the small town that I am from. We were both young and stubborn...two combinations that shouldn't be mixed together for a successful marriage. It was a tough year for the both of us, trying to adjust to our forced adulthood that we brought onto ourselves. Neither of us was ready to make that kind of commitment for different reasons and a year later it fell apart. I was crushed, confused and very scared. I blamed it on the town we lived in and most importantly, on him. I didn't and wouldn't take any responsibility for my unhappiness; therefore I proceeded trying to fix him and NOT myself. I became very dependent on him and felt trapped with no sense of who I was or what I was doing.

After a year full of sadness, anger, and resentment, I finally realized that I had enough. I couldn't take anymore and packed my bags and moved to California. Many have said it was a brave move, that I was a strong person to do that...but really, I wasn't. I was a weak person. I was running away from my problems and not facing what really was going on. People think that it was a hard move for me, but it would've been harder for me to stay. I took the easy route and unfortunately, I still had all my problems...even in sunny California.

My point: Life is what you make it and if you're not willing to take responsibility for yourself, then every place you live and everybody you surround yourself with are going to fail you anyway. So take a hold of what you have and make the best of it! I mean really...what can you lose at this point?