Placeholder: a person or thing that occupies the position of another person or thing.
How many of us have found ourselves with people or things or even in places that we knew in our hearts were just placeholders? The person, place or thing not being exactly what you wanted it to be but it was “good enough”. Good enough to stay with but nowhere good enough to fulfill you. Good enough to give you moments that make you say “I could do this for a little bit”, but the thing is you can only do it for a little bit. The issue with placeholders and things being good enough is that it always comes with a time limit. How many times have you said that you are going to stay at your job for x amount of time? How many times have you said that you are only going to keep hanging out with these people until x time or when x happens? How many times have you said that you are going to live in this city or state until a certain time?
The way that one knows that something is not simply a placeholder is when you stop putting an arbitrary time limit on it. You start to not only fully embrace it but try to seek all the value you can get out of it. You do not only embrace it yourself but you let that person, place or thing embrace you as well.
We have all had placeholders in our lives when I used to live in Minnesota and Washington D.C I knew those were placeholders in my life because I had predisposed time limits on how long I would be living and working there. I noticed the difference in my view of L.A because I actually invested in the city and had no time limit on how long I would be here. Even in my personal life, I have caught myself spending time with people just to pass the time without really embracing or investing in the relationships. Sometimes placeholders are necessary sometimes they are not, its up to you to recognize when something or someone is a placeholder and when they are not.
This is the start of the Words Mean Things writing series that will explore the real-life experiences behind the words we use every day.
