Growing Up

This week has been a week of self reflection. Last Friday, a friend of mine asked me if I'd had my quarter life crises yet. Then on Monday night, jokingly, another friend of mine asked me, "What are your long terms goals?" Having both those questions be put to me during a weekend of a big wedding and my parents 40th anniversary, it made me think about me, and who I am, and what I want from myself.
As people always say, I want to become a better person. This is more then just feeding the homeless and saving puppies. I want to be more complete (roughly the idea of my tatoo). The people around me have always added to my completeness. Now wait, I did not say that they MAKE me complete that's totally different. The people around me show me things that make me better. Hold up a mirror and say, "hey, look, you do it too" or "do you know how that came across?" And I think that's what true family and friends are for.
It's been a mirror looking week. And what have a seen? I've seen someone who wants to be flexible and understanding, but tends to be just as stuck in her ways the same way as any other 26 year old.
I've been working too hard, as of late, to "help" the people around me, to make them better people, that I haven't looked at myself. I've also forgotten that I'm looking at my friends though the glasses of what I want, not necessarily what is best for them or who they are. I want to be a more understanding person, but I have to remember that I want to be more understanding of my friends, too, not just strangers.
It's not easy growing up and getting more set in your ways. When you're little, you want to absorb everything you can, but when you reach mid 20's you're a full sponge and it's much harder to ring a little bit of water out to make room for something new then it is to just shed it away.