Sometimes in life, you’re faced with the choice to push forward toward your goals, or to enjoy the ride, but I don’t believe that you have to pick just one or the other. Life is about finding the balance of hard work, but also taking time to sit back and see where it takes you on it’s own. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I love a good metaphor. Whether it’s in everyday life, or on this very blog, nothing is better in writing than something that makes the hair on your neck stand up. In college, we girls love what is called “heart to hearts”. Now these are rare in between the studying, going out, and the ever so sacred college nap time, but they do occur on rare occasions. When they do, they usually involve a group of girls, pajamas, acetone, and maybe or maybe not a glass (*bottle*) of wine. (Kidding about the wine, Mom and Dad) 

So whether or not you give a crap about metaphors, it is in a recent heart to heart with some new amazing friends that I thought of my new favorite metaphor. Whether you’re like me and dealing with the everyday struggles a college girl faces, or facing struggles of your own, it is important to treat life like a moving sidewalk.

Moving sidewalk? Yes, a moving sidewalk.

You know, the step-less escalator things that you never really understood the point of at the airport until you were like 12? A moving sidewalk is a pathway that moves because apparently people who just get off planes are incapable of walking a specific 300 ft. section of the airport. If you’ve been to an airport, you know there are two types of people on moving sidewalks. There are the people who stand, ear phones in, coffee in hand, paying no attention to the cranky travelers around them. They stand, hand on the rail, clogging the path, but enjoying the short break of walking, simply letting the moving sidewalk escort them to baggage claim. 

The second type of passenger on a moving sidewalk is the hustler. You know these people too. These are the go getters that also pay no attention to the peasants around them, nearly knocking over the four year old boy with the rolling Elmo backpack. Hustlers are usually dubbed as jerks, and the standers are usually dubbed as lazy.

So what do you want to be? Do you want to be lazy and stand or do you want to hustle through and be called a jerk? The choice is entirely up to you, and neither is the wrong one.

On the moving sidewalk of life, it is important to find a medium. When life is helping you out, take advantage of the extra push and give it your all, but still make time to look out for the other passengers. 

Let the moving sidewalk take you places, but don’t let the whole airport pass you by, because like an escalator, if you stop paying attention, you fall. 

So if you give a crap about metaphors and means of getting around an airport, treat life like a moving sidewalk. While it’s important to stay focused, always make time for your friends, wine, heart to hearts, and acetone. But most importantly, always make time for metaphors, because the moving sidewalk has to end at some point.