There is no such thing.

We all know this.

Yet the struggles still catch many of us by surprise.

Living under someone else’s roof,

No matter what form that takes,

Has its own set of inflections on your individualism

And yet waking up every day to a home

That only you inhabit

Can impede on your sense of community.

Being an employee can be stifling,

Your great ideas don’t have a certain path to implementation,

Being your own boss is like waking on stilts

Only you can feel how close you always are to toppling over.

Single people are often fighting off the clouds of loneliness

And people in committed relationships find that loving another human

Is harder than it looks.

Don’t get me wrong,

There is such a thing as a better relationship

A better job

A better set of circumstances

A better life.

But none of them are struggle free.

All of them are rugged in their own way,

Reminding us that along with the good stuff

The struggle is what we signed up for.