Finding yourself

          My Grandmother and I don’t always agree on things.   Alright I’ll be honest, most of the time we don’t agree on things.  While I was at my Grandmother’s house for the holidays we were watching an old episode of the Cosby show.  Mr. Huxtable was giving Denise’s boyfriend a hard time because he said he wanted to “find himself” before he went off to college.  My Grandmother had to laugh because she never understood the concept of “finding yourself” as many people in my generation refer to it as.  She grew up in a time where people came back from war, got married, had kids, and worked the same job until they retired.  Times have changed quite a bit from the “greatest generation” to my generation, the millennials.  I often find it difficult to relate to the ways in which my Grandmother grew up but I don’t think that finding yourself is necessarily a generational thing. 

            Now this depends on the definition of “finding yourself”.  Finding yourself is more than just working at Starbucks for a year after you finish college while you decide what to do next.  It doesn’t mean you have to travel to Europe for a month long backpacking trip and experience different cultures.  In fact I would argue that you could even live the same lifestyle of those who grew up in my Grandparent’s generation and still find yourself.  I recently read a book called Rediscover Catholicism by Matthew Kelly.  In this book Kelly talks about becoming the best version of yourself.  It is this best version of ourselves who we should all be striving to become. 

            God created us all uniquely and as individuals.  Everyone on this planet is created differently than another.  We all have talents and weaknesses.  We all have the ability to achieve greatness in God’s eyes.  However, God also gave us free will which means we have the ability to ignore what God has given us.  We can turn our backs on God as we please and we often do.  But it is when we truly embrace the talents and live according to God’s will that we become the best version of ourselves.  This is what the saints did.  Kelly reminds us that the saints were not born as saints but somewhere along the way they decided to dedicate their lives to God in everything they did.  So I would argue that finding yourself doesn’t need to involve traveling halfway around the world, living in hostels, and learning a new language but instead just involves choosing to let God into your life and allowing yourself to embrace his will.