Of Sardines

I've been doing a lot of reflecting and thinking regarding my purpose in life. Some days I miss my carefree childhood when my biggest ambition was to make a huge blanket fort in my living room so that I could watch Disney's Beauty and the Beast in peace.

Life's not so simple, is it?

So why "sardines" you ask? I'm getting around to that. Now, the sardines I'm talking about here does not relate to the fish. It's a game, a cross between hide-and-go-seek and tag. For those of you not familiar with the rules, here's the general idea:

1. Sardines is a group game (I personally think 5 people is a decent number).
2. To begin, one person is selected to go hide.
3. The rest of the group has to count to a given number, then they each go their separate ways to find the individual who is hiding.
4. When a group member finds the hider, he/she joins them. The last person to find the initial hider is the one to hide next.

The big picture is that you want to find the hider and not be the last one to do so. It's a fun game that is filled with lots of laughter. It's always a good ice-breaker activity.

Thinking about my life, I've learned that life is a bit like the game sardines. We are the seekers looking for the hider: always searching for something, not sure if we're going to find it before someone else does. That "something" might be a relationship, a preferred career, a home, new friends, or family we've lost touch with.

As I transitioned from high school to college and from college to the career world, I can't help but wonder why we have this mentality of always searching for something that is seemingly out of our grasp. We often find it, only to have the game change on us all over again as a new "hider" is introduced. It's not a bad thing to dream and look for something better, but when we lose sight of the original goal we often lose part of ourselves in the process. Maybe sometimes it isn't always about how something comes to a conclusion:

I discovered today that the only way we can really be at peace about our individual game of sardines is to be thankful for all that we do have. Oftentimes, a goal seems unreachable because we're so focused on having the bigger or better that we lose sight of the blessings in front of us. I have a lot of things to be thankful for today, and I'm sure you do too.

So, focus on the story. Dream big with the aim of helping people - but don't get lost in the game of sardines along the way.