It's not about ME!

I have been pondering about things like opinions, youth, optimism, idealism, passion for life, and acceptance. For instance, one could say that I am an innocent, stupid-in-love 20 year young idealist and I have no idea what life is about or how hard it can be. That is a fair point. I am all of those things. As my return argument, I would say: Why is that a bad thing? Isn’t the beauty of youth our optimism? I firmly believe that if we knew at 20 what we know at 80, no one would want to live that long. Or go through all of that. Being young is all about not knowing that you can’t do the impossible.
On a related token, yes, I am an idealist. I have no desire to settle for “whatever floats down the river of life.” Eww, yuck! I think often about having a strong, loving marriage in the future. I imagine laughter, lots of learning, self sufficiency, commitment, and yes, happiness. I think about continuing my education to become an herbalist, a midwife, a homeopathic/naturopathic doctor, and lots of other things. I see myself going back to Italy, and everywhere else. I do not think it is a silly thing to know what you want in life. If you don’t know, how will you work towards it? Heavenly Father put us on Earth to gain experience. And also, “…Men are that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25) Yes, life can be hard. Yes, there will be times when we wonder if it is really worth it. I confidently believe that it IS worth going through all the bad to get to the good.
The two things we get to take with us when we die are knowledge and relationships. If that is not incentive to work on those things, I do not know what is! I have my mental weak spots (mathematics and physics, anyone?) but I am also pulling a 3.9 GPA in my college courses at the moment. I know I am intelligent and I learn fairly easily. The more knowledge I gain in mortality, the better off I will be in the eternities. Relationships (family, friends, spouse or significant other, etc) can be the most joyful, rewarding experiences that we have, or the cause of the most pain and anguish. I am a gung-ho advocate for good communication, frequent loving words and actions, selfLESSness, and forgiveness. It is possible to have functional, loving relationships if we are just willing to work for them. My motto has become “It’s not about ME! It’s about you.”