Well,
I have quite a bit on my mind today.
So, first things first, I'll get the most important stuff out of the
way.
http://www.worldvision.ca/give-a-gift/Pages/nepal-earthquake-relief.aspx?gclid=CN3n2MnBmsUCFQGNaQodEDEA4w
The
site above will take you to a link where you can donate money to the people of
Nepal. Mind you, this is a Canadian
site, so I have no idea if donations from outside of Canada can be
accepted. But Nepal and its surrounding
nations are enduring some major hardships lately on account of that massive
earthquake a few days ago, and the people there could use all the help they can
get. So, take some time and donate some
money to them if you can spare it.
(NOTE: You will need a major credit card to make a
donation.)
Secondly,
my thoughts go out to the people of Baltimore right now with all of the riots
going on. While I sympathize with the
reason why people are protesting, I don't have any tolerance for people who
destroy property and cause mischief out of anger for a decision that was made,
and if you are one of those that feels the need to do this, please stop. There are ways to protest wrongdoings
without resorting to violent acts.
Baltimore,
stay safe.
Anyway,
onto the real point of this blog - which really doesn't have anything to do
with the above postings at all - but still something that I've written about
after doing a lot of thinking about where I am right now.
I
want to thank those of you who cast a vote in the poll. Your votes helped me decide what topics to
talk about for the blog's anniversary month.
There's still a little bit of time to vote yet, but it appears as though
the personal stories choice won. So,
for at least the next thirty-one days (and actually, my plan is to make it go a
little bit longer than that), I'll be posting some personal stories about my
life and what I've learned. And, of
course, I'll be throwing in a little bit of a pop culture twist.
Think
of the blog entries for May as a nice refreshing glass of iced tea, and think
of the lemon wedge in the glass as the pop culture twist.
Now
I want iced tea. Be right back.
Ah. That's better. Now where was I? Oh,
yeah. Personal stories. Anyway, as I was saying, I have a really
cool idea as to how to present each of my personal stories...and I'll get into
more detail about that tomorrow.
For
now, I have a personal confession here.
And I'd like you all to hear me out.
You
know, in addition to the blog turning four years old in May, my birthday also
happens to be in May. I started this
blog six days after my thirtieth birthday, and now that I am a couple of weeks
away from turning thirty-four, part of me is amazed that I have kept this
blogging project going for so long.
But
realizing that I will be thirty-four has sort of made me think about a lot of
things right now.
Going
on social media sites, and connecting with people who are my age or a couple of
years older or younger, I've noticed that most of them have settled down and
have gotten married and had a child or two.
Believe me, I've seen your pictures, and read your status updates! But that's cool with me. Truth is, I like hearing all about those
kinds of stories. In a world that is
constantly peppered with bad news and doomsday prophecies, it's wonderful to
hear stories of people who have done well and found success in their
lives.
Mind
you, I imagine most of you sometimes want to rip your hair out with the stress
that comes from raising a family, but I suppose it's a necessary part of
becoming a parent. It's one of the
hardest jobs that one can do, but I can see how it can be one of the most
rewarding.
Of
course, I can only imagine this to be the case. I have no experience with having a family or raising children
because at nearly thirty-four years old, I am still childless. Of course, I'm nobody's husband either, so
that sort of explains why I am childless.
And
believe it or not, there was once a time in which that really bothered me.
I
guess in some manner of speaking, many people seem to equate success in the
amount of children one has. And
certainly for a lot of people, I can see why they would want to have
children. They would want to continue
the legacy that the family began. And
most people probably do want to become parents at some point in their
lives. And seeing the vast majority of
people who I went to school with having children and settling down, it did sort
of make me feel left out knowing that I didn't have any of my own to share.
But
that was then.
To
be completely honest, I've already made peace with the fact that in my
lifetime, I'm probably not going to be a parent. At least, not right at this moment.
And
I'm fine with that.
Let's
face it. I don't exactly have an easy
time taking care of myself a lot of the time.
I mean, sure, I do have financial responsibility and I probably could
handle the day-to-day aspects of taking care of a child. I did after all become an uncle at fifteen
years old and did a lot of child sitting when I was in my teens and early 20s.
But
emotionally speaking? Yeah, I'm
definitely not ready.
I'm
nowhere near where I want to be professionally, and I still have a long way to
go before I even can consider myself even in the right frame of mind to enter a
relationship, let alone father a child with somebody.
I
suppose it comes down to the whole pronoun that goes something like this. If you can't love yourself, you can't love
anyone else. And, as most of you know
by now, I am still trying to figure myself out.
The
way I see it, children deserve to have parents who have got mostly everything
together. I'm not afraid to admit that
I am nowhere near that yet. Truth is,
I'm just not ready to become a parent or a husband yet.
And
that's perfectly okay.
I
know - or I guess I should say have known - some rather rude people who
seem to believe that success is measured in how perfect your children are, and
that if people don't have children, they are selfish. I actually think that it is more selfish to bring a child into
the world for the purpose of keeping a marriage together, or to solely get
benefits from the government, but I suppose that's just my feeling on the
matter.
And keep in mind that some people are unable to have children biologically. Think about that before you call someone selfish for not having children.
And keep in mind that some people are unable to have children biologically. Think about that before you call someone selfish for not having children.
I
suppose that this has ended up being a whole lot of rambling, but the bottom
line is this. I'm single. I'm childless. And, I'm perfectly okay with that. Maybe in a few years time, I'll think differently. Maybe ten years from now, I'll be trying to
write this blog while simultaneously trying to get two little ones into
bed. And maybe I go the rest of my life
not having known fatherhood.
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