Pain Meds and New Year's Resolutions

This past Friday I had the joy of getting my wisdom teeth extracted, leaving me glued to the couch and TV remote for a few days. I like to think that I have a greater attention span than a squirrel, but for some reason when I'm watching TV, I tend to get distracted. I blame our generation's dependence on technology and instant gratification, but I digress. Anyways, I became so restless that picking up my iPhone and tapping the Instagram or Twitter app became soaked into my muscle memory. The irony in this was that by checking social media sites, I was hoping to cheer myself up. Maybe I would see a funny meme of a cat or a picture of my friend having a nice day. But what I found was that by the time I exited those apps, I was left actually feeling worse than I did before.

I contemplated why this was, yet the answer was obvious. I was left feeling bad simply because I envied everyone out there who was enjoying their day while I was moping around in pain. I quickly realized how stupid this was, I mean, good for them! They're enjoying their break and it's not like my pain and boredom was going to last forever.

With the new year quickly approaching, I had been thinking about what worthwhile resolution I could make, but was running dry on ideas. Thankfully, this experience made me think of a meaningful one; stop comparing myself to others. This is something that I think that not only myself, but everyone could work on. It seems that too often we are worried about what grade some girl got on her test, did I do as well as her? That group of friends went on a beach vacation, do my friends and I have that much fun together? Really, what good comes from agonizing yourself with these questions? In my eyes, as long as you're happy with who you are now, theres no need for constant comparison. At the end of the day, all it does is stress you out that you aren't as pretty, successful, or happy as some other person who is, most likely, thinking the same thing about you.

So, from having three unnecessary teeth pulled out of my gums, I was enlightened with this great lesson! I guess maybe those pain meds were worth it. :)