Being First

I love being first. Not necessarily in a competitive I WIN kind of way, although that is fun too. I like to be the first one to open a jar of peanut butter, to use a new tube of tooth paste, to have the warm biscuit from the oven and to be the one to turn on the lights in the office...the first. I especially love it when I get to be the first one in the bathroom in the morning at work and the lights are out and you just know everything is clean and just waiting for the day to begin…..being first rocks.

It is however, oddly unsatisfying when you live alone. There really isn't any "game" to it...I always get to be the first.

Does being first really matter?

In an age when so many firsts have been made, finding new ones almost seems to require extreme creativity. We tend to glorify the pursuit of all things bigger and better and creating new firsts gets lost in the shuffle somewhere along the line. Being first gives us, well gives me, some sense of meaning. Every new thing leads us to another and another and it doesn’t matter what it’s about. As a society we have to constantly advance and push the envelope for the firsts: first human clone, the first person on Mars event to be the first female president…firsts matter.
But does being first really have the upper hand over being second or even fifth? Shouldn’t getting things done right matter more than doing it first? If we look back in time, the Constitution was not our first attempt at creating a governing document - it was our second and World War I really didn't end all wars did it?

Every time someone is the first at something, people subconsciously feel like it gives us hope. Hope because our futures are filled with firsts. Is the first always the best? Your first kiss, your first time, your first car….they all hold special meaning because they were the first time we experienced something but does that mean they were the best? Deciding whether something is best is nearly impossible to decipher because everyone brings their own measurements to the equation. By putting that stigma on a person, place or thing creates an unattainable level for future attempts.

I love being first, I want to be the first to tell people something they didn’t know. To try a new restaurant, to go someplace no one else has been. It makes me sound like an adventurous person, which I am not, but I like to push the envelope…I like to step out on that ledge and think about jumping.

"There's a new beginning waiting to unfold. It's just not time yet. When you fully honor what was, what will be, it will be worth the wait."