Life Lesson #2: Don't compare your life to those of others

In everyone’s life at some point or another, they come across something they find hard to accept. It can be something against their morals, their will or something they simply don’t understand. It can be a person, a dream or a way of life. For instance, I found it very hard to accept the fact that I had cancer. I did not want it. It was not fair. I did not understand. To be very frank, my first thoughts were, ‘Someone else deserves this, not me.’

Collecting my thoughts in later years, I realized it was very unkind of me to think such things. No one deserves to be ill, sick or disadvantaged in any way. Everyone has their own path in life which they choose to follow. Some may stray off their path and others will ride it until the very end. My path became obstructed when I was diagnosed. After finding out that my surgery was scheduled for late September and that radiation therapy would last two weeks, my hopes for post-secondary education that year began to fade. There would be no way for me to attend class and do well in my courses missing a combined month and a half. My life would be put on hold for some time.
I immediately began to compare myself with others, envious of my friends who were to begin college and university. I was completely and utterly jealous and I will admit it freely. Cancer was scary. I wanted to be the girl on campus, drinking Starbucks, having fun. I thought I was the only one going through a difficult time in my life. I didn’t know until years later that a friend’s grandmother had passed away and another friend had missed deadlines for university that same year. A few friends had even failed classes in our last year and had to stay back for a semester. All their lives were put on hold too, but for different reasons.
Different people cope with different things differently. That is what makes us all so unique. You never know the path that is taken by another whether it’s a stranger, a friend or a colleague. Their path may look far better to you than your own and vice versa. However, you don’t know what their personal conflicts are and you don’t know how they deal with things and how difficult it may be for them.
Be happy with what you have and the life you live and try not to compare yourself to others. Life is what you make it and if you are lucky there are little surprises along the way. You can wish upon a star for a life much different than your own but would you really want to forget the great people you’ve met along the way, erase all the love you’ve shared and change the dreams you’ve created for yourself. Would you really want to trade your problems for the problems of someone else?