The last few months have brought a lot of tears.
I left a job I loved for a job that I also love, in different ways. I cried a lot about that. I carried a fair bit of guilt about it. But when it comes to career moves, I've never regretted saying yes, even though at the time I never felt quite ready to move on just yet. I feel so stupidly lucky to have had not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4 dream jobs in a row, and to tick off working in two areas I really wanted to try.
I've realised I'm perhaps not the best at judging others based on first impressions. (Ironic, since I give off a terrible first impression myself.) I feel a little guilty for pigeonholing a few people so quickly, whom I now have lots of affection for.
I couldn't stop comparing myself (and coming up short) against a couple of peers who I can't help but feel a bit of rivalry with. I would always feel guilty for feeling a bit smug when they stumbled or came up against hurdles.
I've spent so much time pondering what I want and need from a partner. I felt a lot of guilt around balancing my own needs with our needs.
I developed the most inconvenient crush. I felt crippling guilt about this one. I've had them before - a guy at uni, a former boss - but in this instance things were different for many reasons. Not to the point I would ever have acted, obviously, but this one just kept growing for some time.
I realised I should have opened up more to friends. I can't help but feel some guilt for being so selfish, and realising now that we were all separately, quietly, struggling. Maybe we would all have benefited from sharing.
I'm now in the phase of life where people around me are starting to divorce. I feel a little guilty for still being married and also, conversely, for the envy I feel - how much simpler in some ways a single life would be.
I feel guilty for the small, buried part of me that for the longest time conflated divorce with failing. As firmly as I am against staying married when things aren't right - and hell, so many times I wasn't sure I was going to make it myself - deep down I would have considered it a personal failure. But I'm glad to be able to say that this is one judgemental quirk I've now managed to put to rest, even if the catalyst for this is a sad one.
Bit by by, I've let go of all this guilt. It is exhausting to carry around. Ain't nobody got time for that.
