Nothing Compares To You

Alright folks, it’s serious Grumpy Nerd Dad time!

That’s right, sometimes I talk about things like poopie diapers and my daughter giving me nightmares, but once in a while I like to take a moment to talk about serious things with y’all. It’s kinda like when your dad needs to have a talk with you and asks you to go for a drive with him to get ice cream. So you can consider this our collective drive to Dairy Queen folks, because it’s time for some fatherly advice courtesy of your grumpy overlord. Real talk though, I don’t think we will all fit in my Chevy, so some of you may need to sit in the back. Also I can only afford the dollar menu, so no whining or you get nothing!

Anyways, why do we compare ourselves to others? I know, right off the bat with the tough questions but Dairy Queen ain’t that far from my house so we need to get this train a’moving!

But seriously, it’s something that I’ve noticed myself and practically everyone I know doing at one point or another. It’s hard to be content with who we are or where we are at sometimes. And this is something that I planned for my survival guide, but it’s honestly not exclusive to parenting! Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of instances of parent shaming around the interweb and social gatherings that I still plan to cover. Comparing how your kids are behaving to that of the Johnsons next door is sort of second nature when you’re a’ parenting.

But I feel like those of you who stick with me despite not being a parent need some dad talk too.

Most of us, no matter what circumstance life has us in at that moment, are guilty of looking at someone else’s life and feeling inadequate. An old classmate is finishing up their masters while you struggle to finish up your undergrad, all of your friends are off dating or getting married while you have trouble getting a date, or all of these youngens making money off of playing video games on YouTube while you are fighting tooth and nail to find a decent job.

It’s hard to be happy with our lives when others seem to be living it so much better. Maybe it’s the times we live in, the age of the social media. People are always posting their lives online for us to look at and we see how fun they are having/how successful they are being. I mean, how can you not feel inadequate after spending your entire day working your butt off, but then you see someone posting their pictures from their awesome freaking trip at DisneyLand? Makes you sit there in a frump like “I don’t want to be exhausted and bored at my job! WHY AM I NOT AT DISNEYLAND?!” I think the one I’m most guilty of is seeing people being financially successful and seemingly making it when I myself haven’t figured it out yet. We of course feel happy for our peers when they’re having fun/being successful, but it is only human to be envious methinks and that’s okay to a certain degree. We should always be trying to better ourselves and/or our lives to some extent, but to be obsessed with other people’s accomplishments can only lead to feelings of inferiority.

Try to remember whenever you feel like your neighbor or person you follow’s life seems more awesome than yours that we don’t know every aspect of their life. I mean, if you stood on a soapbox and yelled out only the awesome stuff that happened to you that day, people would start to think that your life is pretty awesome too (and you might get a ticket for disorderly conduct)! Just because someone’s pictures on Facebook or Instagram show them having a good time at seemingly every freaking moment doesn’t mean that they don’t have their own issues. And of course they have their own freaking issues, WE’VE ALL GOT ISSUES! You rarely share your issues with the entire world unless you’re asking for help, so we typically only see the good stuff from others.

So don’t beat yourself up because your life isn’t as fun/fulfilling as everyone else’s appears to be. Everyone has their own struggles, and everyone has their own winnings too. Look, your life may not be perfect. You may be going through a rough time without a break in the clouds in sight, but don’t compare your life to someone else’s or else you’re just going to make it harder on yourself. There’s a lot to be said about learning to be content with yourself. You don’t necessarily need to be overjoyed and giddy with your life at every waking moment (as this is almost impossible), but instead try just being content with it. You are who you are, and that’s pretty cool.

Don’t try to be like others or else you’ll deprive yourself of what makes you, well, you.

Our lives won’t always be perfect, but if we can just learn to be happy with what we got and carry on then things will be a lot easier. Not saying we shouldn’t always be bettering ourselves as I firmly believe that everyone can do better, but that doesn’t mean that you suck and that you shouldn’t be happy. Don’t make the mistake of looking at someone else’s grass and yearning for their perfectly kept lawn.

You are you and nobody does it quite like you do.

But anyways, we have arrived at our destination! Everyone out of the truck and go inside while I get a ticket for having a bunch of people riding in my truck bed. I’ll try and have some more fatherly advice in the future in case you need some more words of affirmation to get you through your day.

Likes and comments are always appreciated and thank you for taking the time to have a one-on-one with me. You are all awesome! Stay classy, stay safe, and, above all else,

Stay grumpy.