We all think we’re missing out on something that we think everyone else has.

The new college grad envies the person with the 9-to-5 job. The 50 something would love to be the fresh-faced 21-year-old with a whole potential career ahead and the freedom to do nearly anything.

When we’re married and saddled with a mortgage and either kids or pets, we think our single sister or brother is having a wild time out on the town with parties and no-strings-attached lovin’.

Birthdays often remind us of things we think we are missing in our lives

But more often lately, I see those without a wedding ring or children pine over those things.

My TV news colleague Vinnie recently commented about an upcoming birthday. He’s going to be 40-years-old.

“I will put off this upcoming milestone birthday as long as I can! Especially since I have nothing in life to show for it! Blah.”

Another TV news colleague, Robert, also seems to ponder the same thing. He has been quite distraught over the abrupt end of a relationship he thought might be headed toward something more substantial than a sip and go.

I understand the angst.

After my divocrce, I was sure I was destined for a miserable life of loneliness. I imagined all my friends and family nestled happy in their homes with partners and overwhelmed with the sheer joy of domestic bliss.

But in the last nine months, I have been determined to remove this and other inaccurate views of life and rediscover the unique communication and writer path I’ve been following most of my life. I am so blessed by the elements of surprise that pop into my life now because I removed from my head the false perceptions about where I’m “supposed to be.” I no longer have any of that angst.

I know it can be difficult, but you can do the same. You have something in your life that others covet. Be proud of what you’ve accomplished and, more importantly, what you will accomplish in the future. There is no timeline with a pre-designed plot. You will not hear a “DING. You are a real woman” sound when you buy a house, get married, give birth, or any of those life events we tend to use as barometers to mark a well-rounded life.

I told Vinnie the following and I’ll say it again:

I assume you’re grousing about not having a yard full of kids and a wife on your arm. Look at it this way, there are loads and loads of people at 40 who regret relationship choices and others who also wish they had had the prescience to follow their dreams and heart and be adventurous. Which is what you are doing. Now knock it off.