You are where you are.

What a crazy end to the week.

The Can Bandits had a heroic come-from-behind walk-off victory Thursday night, then I jumped directly on a red-eye flight to Tampa to see my new niece Teddy P (and Nick and Clare).

The Red Eye always seems like a great idea. (Don't have to skip work - save a day of travel) But in reality, it's really not. It just wrecks you for a few days unless you're one of those psychos who can actually sleep on a plane.

Not me, I can barely sleep in my own bed. Thinking I’m going to catch more than 15 minutes of Z’s on a flight is delusion behavior. Still, I do it every time.

Dune 2 though.. wow....

2 big conclusions this weekend:

1. Florida is the hottest place in the whole entire world. (fact)
2. Babies are absolutely bananas.

I still can’t believe that after you have a newborn they just send you home with it.

All right, take this bad boy home, best of luck. Remember, it absolutely cannot do anything for itself, and it's going to want to eat/poop its pants every 3 hours.

Absolutely terrifying.

I was left just me and the baby for about 17 minutes total this weekend, and I was ready to poop my own pants. And I haven't done that in over 18 months now.

But shout out to Nick and Clare, because everyone says they have a cute baby, but teddy P is actually the cutest thing ever.

I also got to catch up with my old college roommate this weekend and play his local track in Tampa. Always great to catch up with old friends.

It's crazy how quickly life can change.

Spending time with Clare, Nick (+Teddy), and my old college roommate this weekend made me realize that becoming an “adult” is a crazy thing.

There's no blueprint, proper pathway, order of operations, or anything.

It’s kind of a “figure it out” as you go type thing.

Even the people who seem to have it all together are still, ..in fact.. figuring it out.

I wrote a few weeks ago about having a path in life, one that’s your own, or one laid out for you by your parents/support system.

Reflecting on that blog, I am so thankful I grew up in a place that allowed me to find my own path, but also one that offered support and encouragement for whatever I chose/wanted to do.

A lot of people don’t grow up with that. They are either forced to go one way, or grow up with no support at all.

Very rarely is it somewhere in the middle. (Just a little push in the right direction)

Anyway, back to adulthood & my takeaways from this weekend.

Myself, my sister and her husband (+Teddy), my old college roommate - all in such different places in life.

It's crazy how you can take so many people in the same-ish age range (25-40), and have them be in so many different places, stages of life, and directions.

You have people with kids, people without, people wanting kids, people who wouldn’t touch a newborn with a 10-foot pole, people making a ton of money, people barely scraping by, people still living their glory days, people who've acknowledged they've passed, married, divorced, in a relationship, single, in school, out of school, back in school, will never go back to school. The descriptors go on and on.

It’s so easy to feel like you should be at a certain stage, or have certain boxes checked.

But why?

Because you feel like you’re falling behind the constructed societal timeline of “life?"

Because your fridge is filled with "save the dates?"

Who wrote the all-encompassing framework of how one's life should go?

For the last few years, my sister, her husband, and I have had very similar lives. Similar goals, similar salaries, similar social circles, etc.

But now, our lives are quite different. They have a 1-month-old baby. Quite literally another life is depending on them fully, which changes a lot.

But I wouldn't describe myself as "behind them" would I?

Part of "becoming an adult" means making decisions. & with those decisions come rewards/benefits/unforeseen consequences/sacrifice & more.

You want to be single? Great - you'll probably have some disposable income for trips and toys. But, you might get a little lonely.

You want to settle down, get married, and have kids? Great - raising a child will probably be one of the most memorable experiences of your life. But diapers are expensive, and that last-minute trip to wherever gets a little bit harder to book.

You want to be somewhere in the middle? That's great too.

The lives we live twist and turn, and intersect with others. The decisions we make at every crossroads, change our eventual outcome. From a personal, professional, and financial perspective.

You can stay in your hometown, you can move away. You can work 80 hours a week, or just make enough to scrape by.

Either way, there's no right or wrong, the choice is yours. People are happy, and unhappy in both situations.

Maybe not everyone wants the white picket fence. Maybe some unforeseen circumstance affected your life, too.

What's important?

But what's important is not to be comparative or regretful for the life you have based on the decisions you’ve made. (unforeseen circumstances aside)

I’m sure a lot of people look out the window at their neighbor every day and wish they too were single, and driving that sports car, as their baby whales in the background.

But I’m also sure that the person next door is probably looking out their window back too. Wishing they had a little family and kids who were playing in the sprinkler outside.

It goes both ways.

The most important piece is to acknowledge and accept where YOU are, and not be envious of where you're not.

(And if you really don’t like where you’re at, believe it or not, you do have the power to make a change)

You have a lot more time than you think.

Accept that everyone is in different places. There's no timeline.

What kind of world would we have if everyone did everything the same, followed the same path, and made the same decisions? We’d have no diversity, no contrasting perspectives, etc.

It's about trying your very best to create the life that you want to live.

Don't measure/track against other people, measure/track against your own happiness, on your own timeline.

Gotta wrap this one early this week!