Lift the Veil

If there is one thing that I have come to appreciate about life, it’s that nobody ever has it all figured out. 

As children, we think that adults have it figured out. 

I remember my step brothers and I admiring their cousin, Ben. Ben was much older than us and seemed so cool. The last time I saw him, he was in his early 20s and I couldn’t wait to be in my 20s and have it figured out just like he did. 

Looking back at this memory, it always puts a smile on my face. Ben most definitely did not have life figured out, just as I didn’t in my early 20s, nor do I now. It’s also humorous how ignorant we were in the past. 

I would say how ignorant we are as children but as we gain more experience, I think we can look back at ourselves at pretty much any moment and find areas we were more ignorant than we are now. 

I love observing people. I can’t help but watch how others behave in public (and think about how I am behaving as well). 

It’s interesting to watch how people engage with one another or what they do when they believe people aren’t watching. If we all followed the precedent of not picking our noses set for us as children, my morning commutes would be a lot less entertaining. 

In observing others, I have also taken note of how many people are significantly older than me that I know more in certain areas of my life. I may not have amassed as much experience and exposure to life as they have, but there are areas where they rely on me for support. 

Like how grandparents are frequently taught tricks on their phones by their grandchildren. 

I have also observed people at various stages of life all struggling with the same pain points, such as taxes, not knowing how to navigate an airport, or the inevitable anxiety that happens when you are all waiting for public transportation to arrive after a delay and start wondering if it came early and you missed your train. 

As we gain experiences like this, the veil that is on our eyes as children lifts. 

You begin to see that we all struggle forever. 

We never have everything figured out. 

You may be able to become incredibly knowledgeable in specific fields, but you still won’t possibly know everything about those fields, let alone all aspects of life. 

In accepting this, you unburden yourself from the guilt, the shame of not knowing everything. 

You allow yourself to explore the unknown more freely, knowing that there is more information out there than you could possibly ever absorb, even in infinite lifetimes. 

There is always a skill to be developed, a lesson to be learned. 

In knowing this, you allow yourself to grow.