Have you ever noticed that everything in our lives is temporary?

Our friends come and go, and seasons change. We are always looking forward to having tests be over with or we're excited for that special trip coming up, but before you know it, the finals are beginning yet again and the trip has only become a memory that can pieced back together by the pictures in your phone.

As human beings, we don't enjoy pain. We are always constantly searching for happiness and a lot of times in order to find that happiness that we see in movies or read about in books we end up in a lot of heartache and emptiness instead.

Why is that? Why are we always looking for the "next best thing?" Haven't we figured out that in the end, "the next best thing" will only leave us just as everything else once did?

No we haven't figured that out yet. Or if a few individuals have realized this conclusion, a lot of times we choose to not listen to it. Our society is all about "social" and "inclusive." It's all about meeting other people and spreading ideas but the problem is some people have strong influences. It's almost as if they can control others just by being who they are and doing what they do. Now sometimes, this is a good thing. There are many pastors and priests, teachers, and managers, or even friends and family members who have a main focus on providing for the world. They are doing everything in their power to make the world a better place and to lift up the people around them to help them reach their highest potential.

Sometimes though, this idea of always having others around who have a certain type of influence over you (whether you even recognize it or not) isn't ideal. Most people in the U.S. have a TV in their living room, now if you don't have cable hooked up, you have Netflix, Hulu, or some other site to watch your favorite TV shows and movies. The producers and directors of all television or movie productions have more power over the general public then I think we give them credit for because most of the time, we are all basing our perceptions of what happiness and life looks like off of the shows and films we are exposed to.

The premises of the films show how love is supposed to look or what true friendship is, and depending on your own personality, you watch certain shows and you relate to them. After you relate to them you start to look for what is being shown to you from your living room tv into your own life. That's where comparisons come into play. You compare yourself to the show, then you turn to the people in your life and compare highs and lows. Sometimes this is all thought-processes but then sometimes you stalk a social media profile and the comparisons continue.

"She's beautiful," "They are the perfect looking couple," "I wish my parents would buy me a car."

The list can go on for hours, the scrolling can continue into stalking the girlfriends, best-friend's cousin, the pity can remain every time you step foot into your friends new car. Sometimes it's hard to stop asking yourself the question,

"Why am I not happy? If I had everything they do, would I be happy?"

I'm here to tell you the answer to that question is

NO.

Everyone is different and as I said before, everything is temporary. Beauty, relationships*, material objects. They will all end eventually and what you leave behind is the legacy that others know you for. Would you like to leave behind a legacy of always having the nicest stuff? Or being the most beautiful in high school/college? Or would you rather leave behind the feeling of love and respect?

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." -Maya Angelou

I think many times we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. We are looking forward to the end of a painful time or the excitement of a great one. As humans we are all chasing happiness and tend forget that happiness, too, is temporary. It leaves just as quickly as it comes but if we can all keep in mind that this world is all temporary, that one day the planet Earth will be gone. Humans may or may not live on and adapt but until we figure that out, you can leave a legacy through everyone you meet.

Touch each person's soul and love them unconditionally. Know that even if you don't like each part of them, everyone is fighting a battle we know nothing about. Set a good example and love others, they will watch you and compare themselves to you. Through this leadership, we can all learn that love is one thing in the entire universe that is not temporary. It is forever eternal.

*I would like to point out that not all relationships (boyfriend, girlfriend, friend, family members, etc.) all end in the sense of break-ups or walk-aways. I meant it as one day, your friend, spouse, mother, boyfriend, dog, whatever, may pass away. Life itself is only temporary. So enjoy it while it's still here.