Living Life to the Fullest: Even When You Feel Unsettled

Original post by Sarah @ Renewed Upon a Dream, please visit her website for more great ideas!”

Maybe you have heard, I’m the wife of a medial resident.  “We” are in the second year of “our” three-year residency.  After residency, we’ll be going on to a three-year fellowship, which we have to do a match for.  After that, my hubby will get to look for a “real” job.  (If you want more information about our process, check out this post.)

Because of all of this uncertainty, we have decided that this isn’t the time for us to purchase a home.  So we’re living in rentals.  I don’t really mind that we’re in a rental that much.  The thing that bothers me most is the feeling of being unsettled.  The feeling of waiting waiting waiting for our lives to “really” begin.

I’m betting that many people who rent feel this way.  Maybe you’re in a situation like us where your not able to put down roots & know you’re going to stay someplace.  Maybe you’re just not in a place in your career to feel really secure in your place & location.  Or maybe you have had financial difficulties or are just waiting until you’re able to save enough money or pay off enough debt to be able to purchase a home.  There’s tons of reasons that people decide to, or need to, rent.  But I think no matter your reason, you’re often waiting for something to happen that will propel you to a place where you can consider buying.

That waiting can feel like an eternity.  Especially when it’s not something that’s within your control.  Sometimes I feel like I’m just along for the ride on this residency/fellowship thing & I have absolutely no say in what happens… & that just stinks.  I believe that my periodic discontent with our inability to purchase a home is mostly a result of this feeling of loss of control.

So, for me, I think it’s really important for me to live life in the now.  To put my all into my life in general & not focus as much on what I wish we had or “can’t wait” to have or what others have.  Looking to the future too much for me can lead to impatience.  I must live life to the fullest now.  That means making new friends like I’m gonna be around forever (because who knows, I might actually be around here forever!)  That means taking care of my house even though we wont be there forever.  It means nurturing my relationship with my husband & having fun NOW because we don’t want to someday look back at this time with just the two of us & wish we had spent what little time we had together doing more fun things.

It’s important that we save money now, but not so important that we do it to the detriment of our relationships with each other & friends.  It’s important that we rent now, but that doesn’t mean that we have to live in a really awful place.  And we may have to move away in a year & a half & have to leave all of our friends, but we shouldn’t sit on our bums at home waiting to find out.

I’ve been trying to focus more on this stuff now.  Making sure that I’m really LIVING & not just WAITING.  How about you?