A few days ago I went through my typical morning task of making sure the world didn’t fall apart while I was asleep. In simpler terms, I got caught up on emails, checked to see which facebook friends had birthdays, then scrolled through twitter. While scrolling I came across an article with an attached picture of our Commander in Chief enjoying everything life had to offer on his final Presidential trip to Asia. The article title read:
“President Obama is Living his Best Life and Drinking Straight from a Coconut in Laos”
I subsequently let out an audible scream of laughter because wow, our President never ceases to amaze me and the whole “living the best life” terminology has become one of my favorite phrases to date. Since I’m apparently doing this thing where I make social media happenings relatable to our academic ventures, I figured, why not transition from last week’s shambles to living our best lives like the coolest dad ever, President Barack Obama?
Since the original article, I’ve made the picture my twitter cover photo and contemplated updating my facebook page. The only thing that could possibly make the photo better would be to add Michelle, Beyonce, and baby Blue Ivy to the mix, but we can save that for another time.
So what does living your best life even mean? I’ve always referred to the phrase as having a good time, being carefree, and content with the things that transpire through the day. In academia we’re always told to find better sources, so I took the liberty of finding someone well versed in the field of living the best life and learned that the phrase means, “to live lives that make us feel fulfilled and that are purpose-driven” (TheFiestyHouse Blog). Sitting down and truly thinking about a phrase that leaves my mouth on at least a weekly basis I started to wonder, am I actually living my best life?
Although there’s always room for improvement, I think the answer might actually be yes! Of course this sounds crazy coming from someone who was probably in shambles 72 hours ago, but let’s think about this — I truly believe I/we are living great lives and are destined to do great things.
From a “we” perspective, no matter what outside situations we may encounter, compared to others, we are truly living our best lives. We’re at a major university and getting an extraordinary education. We’re doing cool things with cool people and many of us are in organizations that are making big impacts on the world in which we live. On a more personal scale, I’m balancing two ridiculously amazing internships and am meeting new people every day. My time management skills are getting better by the hour, my relationships with friends are continuing to grow, and my horizons are expanding continuously. I could be over-doing a few things, but I feel driven, motivated, and ready to take on the tasks that will come my way. More importantly, I’m healthy and getting through life without significant barriers. In other words, for the first time in a while, everything kind of feels “okay” and “all together.” Knock on wood.
Sure, I’m not sipping on a coconut like the President or having a very ideal virgin Mai Thai at an all inclusive beach resort where food is delivered right to my bedside, but for now this is my best life and I can’t even complain.
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