Being Good Isn’t Good Enough

Why do bad things happen to good people?

It’s a question we ask ourselves time and time again in life while listening to our best friends vent and watching our favorite characters being betrayed on Netflix- but let’s be real; we most often ask ourselves this question when life isn’t going our way. Or at least I do.

I don’t get called back for an interview. I get a grease stain on a brand new, rather expensive piece of clothing that I didn’t even get to take a picture in. I find out that the cute guy I pass every day on my way to the library has a girlfriend, and she’s, like, really pretty.

“Why?” I ask the universe. “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

And while I do think that while I can be a narcissistic, melodramatic scumbag at times, anyone that actually knows me knows that beneath the judgmental glares and subtweets is a heart softer than Drake’s unsent texts at 4am. But you know what I’ve realized? Being a good person isn’t good enough.

The blind man I helped get to his bus stop and the stranger I gave an umbrella to aren’t going to get me success, fame, a free trip to Vegas or a 6’4” lax player to be big spoon. I can’t keep pretending that the world owes me anything for being more decent than average. I can’t keep asking myself why bad things happen to good people like being a good person isn’t exactly what you’re supposed to be.

It’s so easy to think of yourself as a victim. It’s so easy to find an Elite Daily article about why you’re pERf3CTLy iMPERfECtt ~* and tell yourself that it’s completely acceptable to ignore your responsibilities, stuff your face, and binge watch Gossip Girl, because you’re a good person, and you deserve it. But we only have ourselves to blame for what we settle for.

The people that succeed aren’t the people doing the bare minimum, or the people that think that fortune will find them. They’re the people chasing it at all costs, fueled by their commitment to their vision.

There isn’t a mysterious cosmic force out to get me. I’m not where or who I want to be because I haven’t been trying hard enough, and that’s that. If I want to have a 23 inch waist and be invited to speak on Fox News in the next two years, I better start acting like it.

Being yourself is overrated; become the person you want to be.