Shelby Stidham

The Defining Moment

Cynicism is knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.-Oscar Wilde

What is it about life that makes things change so fast? One minute you’re feeling fabulous, looking fabulous and then right after you wash your face you become this tired old twenty something with a sore face and an aching to go to bed. So what is it that makes everything change so quick? I know it can’t just be washing my face, but I also think great change, inescapable change, happens in just the blink of one eye; in just a brief moment.

Have you ever been doing something, maybe at work or at home, and been completely at peace with yourself and what you were doing and then, in a split second, your whole persona has flipped 180 degrees? It’s like, no matter how good you felt organizing your iTunes or how happy you were wrapped up in a blanket watching Judge Judy, in a moment it can all change. And this brief second when the change happens, what I like to call the defining moment, is something that we never forget. Isn’t it strange how quickly things change and how is it that, after the change, all we seem to remember is that second where we started to feel like shit?

I think one of my biggest hang-ups in life is not being able to get over that moment when things change. While I’m really good at pretending like the happy stuff before the moment never took place, and while I’m also quite a pro at powering through the crappy times (then hopelessly blogging about them later), I seem to get stuck on the defining moment. I can’t stop thinking about it. What happened to cause this moment? Why did it happen? Why must things continually change? The answers to these questions, of course, are different for everyone but just one time I’d like to hear a good answer to them.

If anyone can tell me why we have to go through all the bad times to get to the really good ones, I’m definitely willing to listen. And if anyone has any insight on what makes things change so fast, I’m also all ears. Cause this whole life thing seems to only get trickier as I get older and I’m just tired of being confused. And I never thought I’d be an over-thinking blogger, either.