We spend our whole lives looking for ourselves around every corner. We have this twisted connotation and false hope that one day, out of the blue, we are just going to find ourselves, and from that day on we will never feel lost again.
As amazing as fairytales are, they are fiction and this is not true.
You can read a thousand books trying to search for yourself between those torn up pages but I promise you, all you will find is words. You can travel to all 50 states and 196 countries seeking your identity, and you might learn a lot and experience all kinds of new things— but geography will not reveal who you are. You could ask every person you know for help and though they might help you a little bit, it is not inside the encouraging words of others where you can find yourself either.
As sad as it is, some people search for themselves in darker places. They for some reason think that they are going to find themselves at the bottom of some empty bottle, so they drink and drink not realizing that instead of finding themselves, all they are doing is drowning themselves. Jack Daniels may be a fun guy, but he will not lead you to yourself either.
The single and only way that you can find yourself, is by being yourself.
People waste their whole lives on this endless journey by moving to new places and trying to squeeze as many experiences as possible into this small frame of time, that they forget to stop and enjoy where they are right now. You will search and search and eventually you will realize that you have searched your whole life away instead of living it.
Instead, you have to come to the realization that you are right here. You already exist right where you are and no amount of things you experience in life, and no amount of places you travel, can make that statement more valid than it already is.
You feel empty sometimes; everyone does. But instead of searching for this specific kind of happiness that you think is out there, just let in all of the happiness that is around you. You exist within all of it and if you let it in, it will fill you up.
Happiness can't be stumbled upon all at once around a street corner and it can't be given to you by anyone else. You will not necessarily find it when you go away to college or the day you turn 21.
If you continue living with the mindset that somewhere out there is better than where you are right now, then you will never be satisfied. There will always be something better that you don't have.
Happiness comes from yourself.
It is in how you view every single thing that happens to you. There is happiness in every day that you are alive, and it is up to you to let it in. Happiness can literally be found in something as simple as a good cup of coffee on a breezy day or a compliment from a stranger that caught you off guard. It's up to you to change your own perspective and allow the simple little things to make your day.
When you have found that simple happiness, then that is where you can create yourself.
One day I just woke up and decided to stop looking for myself in everyone and everything.
I decided that instead of looking for myself, I was going to create myself.
...and that was it. That was the answer. From then on, I made it my goal to let in any happiness that was around me, and when I felt overwhelmingly filled with it, I would grow so I could let in some more.
So all in all, I know that this is a cliche that you have heard a thousand times before but...
just make sure you don't forget to stop and smell the roses.
