Oh, I’ve been there! The struggle, knowing you made the right choices – the ones that really matter in the long run – but regretting the stuff you didn’t get done, as well. I encourage you to keep being courages, embracing your detour and all of the ordinary that comes with it. It’s that ordinary stuff that adds up, creating the whole picture of your life.

I also think, at the same time, that there is something very extraordinary about time spent with family. Time spent talking. Listening. Laughing. Drinking wine. Sharing a meal. I try to look around the room every time I’m with my family and memorize all of it, because it’s a gift. And, unfortunately, it’s fleeting.

Great post!

Very thought provoking! I try to be extrordinary in my job each day as a teacher. Just when I believe I haven’t met that goal, something happens, a student comes along, makes a comment, finally understands something, engages in a lesson, and so on. Something happens that makes me stop for a brief second and realize that simply ordinary to me may actually be extraordinary to someone else. From a student’s eyes, with their hugs, and understanding, they find extraordinary in me and help me to see it, too, however little and meaningless it may seem.

I know Lil Mil thinks you hung the moon, every moment, everyday. Mom must have thought cleaning that closet with you was priceless, same as husband with dinner. It’s the little moments, the time spent, the feeling of closeness that work together to make your life and your family extraordinary.

The big projects (the book) are incredible feelings of accomplishments. They are crucial, but so are the ordinary moments everyday. Without the ordinary, you would never find the courage to attempt the extraordinary.

Funny, I found Momalom FROM your site. HEHE
So call me an original ETDer.
Anyway… YES! This is a huge source of struggle for me too. I have always set my goals high and hit them. There’s some sort of pride in achieving the things that people said were “a bit out there.” So much that I’ve even considered going back to school (law school even) to do something else extraordinary. But that won’t fix it, there will always be an end and then a feeling of ordinary. So how do we embrace the “ordinary?” (This is not a rhetorical question. I really don’t know, but really really want to.)
GL with your book! Can’t wait to buy it! 🙂

It is the ordinary people who truly make waves, though. When I think about what I could have become–a college professor, renowned researcher, a life altering therapist–I remember that what I am doing now–being a mother–is going to change far more lives. I am raising children to be the next leaders, it is within my power to instill in them the values that I want to preserve. So, yes, I am very satisfied with being ordinary. And, yes, it takes a great deal of courage to feel that way.

Stopping by from Momalom…
This post is so what I needed to read. The struggle of being ordinary, the struggle of owning where we are in every moment, even while cleaning the closet or tending to dishes or whatever… it’s still our life. Every second of it. Knowing that, and loving that, takes so much courage.

Those “ordinary” moments fill the lives of everyone. It’s who you are and what you mean to your family and friends that make your life extraordinary. Extraordinary is not defined by novels and GPAs and fantastic jobs. Extraordinary is defined by relationships.

I’m having a fairly crapy Monday, but took just a few minutes to read a few blogs. I’m glad I did because “it” hit me and made me smile. “It”–the absolute confidence I have that extraordinary is not defined by the rest of the world. It’s defined by those who love me. Yes, I have struggled with the saddness of feeling ordinary, because let’s face it, I am to those not looking closely enough. Look closely, Lauren. You’re not ordinary, and you know it. 🙂

I have this best friend from college who makes it her every day goal to be extraordinary. And she does it. She is talented on every level – singing, writing, crafting, flirting, being social, creativity, making money without becoming a desk jockey or settling into some mundane job, and etc. She can do it all. She has done it all. She makes a goal for herself and sets out to do it then gets it done.

You can see where I’d feel very ordinary. While she traveled and saw the country with pretty much the clothes on her back, a camera, and a journal, I graduated from college. While she lived in the coolest flat ever over an Italian restaurant in downtown Pensacola and helped get an underground church for the homeless going, I became a permanent employee with the State of Alabama and started a career, got my first apartment on my own, and began learning to take care of myself and live without my maternal grandmother who meant (and still means) the world to me.

Then she moved to Chicago and the exciting life continues. Both men and women fall in love with her from the minute they meet her. She says she’s shy, but she oozes confidence and self-assuredness and sex appeal.

I’m 5’10”, she’s 5’1″. However, when we were in college, I was often in her shadows and only know as, “Hey, aren’t you Nina’s roommate?”

You can see where I might feel a bit ordinary.

I know I have done the right things for my life, getting a college degree and having a career and living on my own and etc. Sure, I’m not nearly as outgoing and confident as she is, but I have the friends who matter and people who love me.

When I hear about her life, it makes me feel a little jealous, but also makes me feel exhausted. Constantly having to keep the show going for all of your admirers while continuing to be true to yourself and survive the rigors of day to day life.

She wants to be a celebrity. I want to be a wife and a mother and have a simple but fulfilling life.

I have a feeling there are times she wishes she were more like me.

She inspired me to leave my dead-end job and dead-end town and move to Atlanta. She was the first person I told my plans to, and she never stopped pushing me even when I told her I was terrified of leaving everything behind. She brought me out of my shell (even convincing me to be in a model search for Torrid in 2007) and she, in a lot of ways, changed my life forever.

I love her to death for being the outrageous, outgoing, exciting person that she is, but I’ll take my ordinary life. It serves me just fine. 🙂

Dropping by from Sarah and Jen’s…

First of all, I think attacking a closet cleaning takes huge courage – for some of us.

Secondly, what some call ordinary is the stuff that others of us dream of. And I don’t truly believe there is such a thing as ordinary. Every person is a gift to be explored and discovered. Not the right gift for everyone, but for many. And there’s no greater pleasure in life than that – than others – human connections.

It’s what five-for-ten is all about. It is why we reach out, which is, in itself, an act of courage.

You are so right! It takes just as much, if not more courage to be ordinary. It seems like women especially want to always appear extraordinary. The house always needs to be perfect, the kids always dressed nicely, etc.

Sometimes, there is nothing wrong with leaving the dishes in the sink overnight if it means a chance at some good quality time with your husband or kids!

This post resonated with me. I do struggle with feeling ordinary. I have a husband who (literally) saves lives on a daily basis and loves it. I compare it to what I do, writing, mothering, blogging and the inadequacy of these things sometimes stabs me. I realize my role is important, but writing as you know, is so unforgiving. We have to be our own cheerleaders sometimes. And it includes accepting the ordinary. Embracing it. Realizing that from the ordinary we will give birth to something that will surprise us.

I enjoyed this post because you put all out there. I am over from Momalom, but have visited you before.

Here’s to a big finish on your novel and a Happy Happy Birthday to your little one.