I can't speak for everyone, but I can speak for myself and hopefully be a voice others resonate with when I say that I've spent much of my life being jealous of the successes of others. I've always prided myself on being a go-getter, but that trait alone did not seem to always get me what I wanted. I saw myself working just as hard as the guy next to me but didn't seem to be getting the same opportunities. Anyone else ever share these sentiments? It can get frustrating and discouraging to the point where you start to question your own worth when things don't go as planned. However, it's important to constantly remind ourselves, as well as others, that it's not us.

It's not natural for everyone to strike a gold mine at the same instant. If this were the case, there'd be no gold left for us to search for. Certain opportunities don't work out for a reason, and comparing yourself to others who have different goals and life experiences is doing yourself a disservice.

I'm a 21 year-old Communications student and my boyfriend is nearly 24 and is a Business student. We have completely different backgrounds and seeing him obtain leadership positions was both rewarding and disheartening for me because I saw him as being ahead as I was falling behind. This is a poor way to view things. Three years doesn't seem like much time but granted how much your life can change in a split second, three years is also an opportunity. With time we are given the chance to expand our skillset and discover what we really want. We also discover that the strengths we do have may be better suited elsewhere than the person we've spent too much time being jealous of.

Although we're often forced to compete in life; to compete for love, jobs, prestige, etc, life isn't supposed to be a never-ending competition. Life is meant to be an unexpected adventure with trials and successes and plot twists, because we can't always have everything we want at the time we want, but we can keep pushing forward and challenging ourselves until that silver lining comes our way.