Seeking Independence While Remaining Interdependent

Life continues to forge ahead during this long dreary month of January. The darkness, the wind, the snow, the loneliness has caused it to be kind of a rough month for me as I work on this whole independence thing.


As I seek for this independence and confer with various people I have to consider what they say to a certain degree. I've been told how it's not so much independence I should work on but rather becoming interdependent. I know I can be interdependent; functioning at a high level by exchanging help and support with another to achieve the greatest good possible for two people. I have faith that I can do that because I have, it's the being independent I've never done! 


I'm not looking to live my life in complete independence, but to be able to function without leaning on another person entirely, being able to rely on myself for my own personal needs. After high school I went off to college and did my thing. However I wouldn't say I was truly independent. I had my family within a a five hour drive away, I had extended family not far away, familiar faces since ten of us from my graduating class went to St. Thomas, so there was never a true need to become solely independent. I always a had a boyfriend while at college also. Brandon and I dated for three years, then Abe and I started dating. He and I were together for five years before our split. So in all reality I've never been truly on my own. 


As I reflect on my life right now, I realize that it is now that I must learn to be independent while seeking my eternal companion in which I will be interdependent with. With my parents out of state and having no family here, I am alone. It's a new experience, it's good, it's eye opening; I've learned a lot.