Diamonds Are Fine

As we start the New Year, I wanted to share a story with my readers that I hope will resonate this season. As you think about what you want for your future, and imagine your dreams becoming realities, make sure you don’t settle for good enough. Don’t settle for fine.

I had a diamond ring once.  It was a beautiful ring, all sparkly and lovely and eye-catching.  I hadn’t originally wanted a diamond ring, but in the absence of options, a diamond was what I got.  Truthfully, I didn’t complain much.  It was fine.  Much like everything else in the relationship at that point.  Not great, not perfect, not take-my-breath-away-heart-stoppingly-amazing, but good enough.  It was fine.

That diamond ring led to a wedding that was fine.  Not what I wanted, but what a lot of people wanted, or would have wanted.  To the three hundred people there, it was a beautiful wedding.  For me, it was just fine. That wedding led to a marriage that wasn’t fine.  Luckily, unlike a diamond, it didn’t last forever. I learned a very valuable lesson from it all, which is that fine sucks.

I don’t want a life that is fine.  I want a life that is meaningful, uniquely mine, full of laugh-out-loud moments, heart-wrenching moments, things that I love, people that I admire, dreams that are in the clouds, dancing, jumping, flying and none of it should be fine.  Fine is what I got when it was what somebody else wanted.  Fine is settling for good enough.  Fine is a life of what “if” and “I wish I had”.

I don’t want diamonds.  I don’t want fine.