The Holiday Even Hallmark Won’t Touch

It was just last week at work that someone asked “what are people celebrating nowadays?”  Of course many people gave the usual answers such as birthdays, anniversaries, and graduations.  However, the person posing the question came back with the best retort I’ve heard in years.  “It seems as if I keep running into people who are celebrating their recent divorces.”  Funny how times have changed.  I myself can say I mistakenly congratulated someone on what I thought was a name change due to a recent marriage.  Seconds later I was informed the name change was actually because of a divorce.  Had the gal not seemed so happy about that fact I would have felt horrible about my faux pas statement.  This has all made me take a step back to think about how culture has really changed.

Although there are still some out there that find divorce to be the ultimate sin, I believe people only have that kind of a feeling because they were never married to my ex-husband.  I can relate to those who are celebrating their recent divorces as I am in the same boat.  I once thought that divorce wouldn’t be in my future and once I was married it would be forever.  Clearly I spent so many years bringing fairytales to life that I started to believe they were possible.  However, now I have a whole new outlook and have been happy to take control of my life once again.  At first starting over seemed to be scary as I felt the pressures of time against me, but now that I have taken a step back I realize that my year of change was a pretty awesome place to be.  It’s been 4 months since my divorce was made final and 18 months since I took back my life.

With all the gals around me I see celebrating their first marriage mistake, I am beginning to wonder why you can’t get cards for this celebratory period.  I have seen people throw parties in honor of their divorce, so why isn’t Hallmark jumping on the opportunity here?  Who wouldn’t love a good card declaring how proud you are that your friend finally rid herself of the scum that was sucking her potential and bank account dry?  Come on Hallmark!  It’s time to step up and stay current.  I think the next step will be cards that congratulate people who finally got the credit companies off their butt.  Although, with all this country has been through in the last 5 years, there might already be cards for that.

For all the other gals out there who have recently taken control of their life and kicked the lowlife to the curb, I congratulate you and wish you the best in the adventure you have ahead.  Just know the skies are bright, the path ahead is less rocky then what you’ve already been through and it only gets better from here on out.  Go ahead and celebrate.  Find the things that make you happy and never stop looking forward to the excitement that is ahead.