I saw this license plate the other day, a personalized one…VERYBUSY. Yes, that’s right, the license plate said very busy. I thought to myself, wow. WOW. That says a lot. So many of us feel very busy nowadays, but recently there has started to grow a significant pushback where we are realizing that being busy is not something to wear around like a badge of honor. Quite the opposite.
The busier I am, the more spun-up I feel, the less in control, lacking healthy boundaries, and lacking mental clarity. I still struggle with overwhelm and feel too busy, but I am not proud of it. I am more embarrassed by it…frustrated by it…feeling imprisoned by it. I ache for a solution and I am actively working on becoming unbusy.
From a VERYBUSY license plate, I got to thinking about toe tags. As in, that tag that goes with our body to identify us postmortem. Yes, I know, my mind leaps. Stay with me though. I think of toe tags in their ultra-brief job of identification. I think of license plates and the option to personalize them. With such limited space, one would think if a personalization is done, it would be really meaningful or important. Or at least funny. As in, it would serve a purpose. After all, personalization costs more money. Is VERYBUSY how you would be identified? Would you want that?
Alternatively, how would you want to be identified if you only had space for 8 digits or one or two words? What would your ID be if someone looked at your life from the outside? I think of how I want to live. I do not want to live to build my resume anymore. I would rather live to build my eulogy.
I do not want to be remembered as someone who was really busy. I want to be remembered as someone who loved with all her heart. I do not want to be remembered as someone who seemed perfect. I want to be remembered as someone who lived daringly in the wake of her imperfections.
I do not want to be remembered as someone who lived a comfortable life. I want to be remembered as someone who faced her fears, lived out loud boldly and instead of her badge of honor being very busy, her badge said admittedly vulnerable. I would rather be a hot mess that lived boldly than a perfect picture of the good life. So I ask you again, what would your ID be?
With imperfections, a wake of mistakes, taking chances, being vulnerable and never giving up,
Nikola Rosa
