Are You Living a Good Life?

2011 has been my jet-setting year. My roommates joke that I don’t really live in Brooklyn. I just carry my passport and suitcase everywhere I go and each new destination is my home for the time being.

Truthfully, they’re right.

The thing is though; I don’t completely feel this way. As the saying goes, home is where the heart is, and over the past year my heart has been torn between Brooklyn and New Jersey. While living in Brooklyn has been a dream, I’ll always be a Jersey girl and the Garden State is still where most of my family and friends reside. So, I’m constantly juggling both worlds trying to be present in every relationship but frankly, it’s hard.

While in California dog sitting for a friend for two weeks, I kept wondering what I was missing in Brooklyn. And, when I’m spending my nights hopping concert venues in Brooklyn I wonder what my friends from Jersey are up to or how my cousin’s wedding plans are coming along. Sure, Jersey’s just a bus ride away and people have it much harder being in different countries than their loved ones, but it’s still tough nonetheless.

After a great weekend with friends from home, I realized that home isn’t necessarily a physical place. If you’re religious you might feel home is your God, or maybe it’s an emotional state of accepting who you are. For me, at this moment, home is simply being happy and knowing that I am 100% where I’m supposed to be at this time in my life. Most importantly, appreciating it and living the good life, with no regrets along the way.

I’ve been struggling a lot with who I should be, what I should be doing with my life, who I should or shouldn’t be dating, which church I should or shouldn’t be attending and it’s been driving me crazy! That’s why when I heard OneRepublic’s latest single, “Good Life” it hit me. Who am I to complain? I am living the good life. I know what I’m passionate about (music journalism), I’m getting paid for it (finally!) and on top of all that I’m being flown to music festivals where 2 years ago I paid my own travel expenses because I wanted to go for fun (!!!).

When watching OneRepublic’s live performance of “Good Life,” frontman Ryan Tedder said something that struck a chord. While it’s not the most mind blowing statement, in that moment it made perfect sense to me.

“Every day when you wake up you get to choose what that day’s going to be. It can suck or it can be amazing. It can be terrible or it can be good. I have a theory that you can decide to make whatever day it is a good day, and as cheesy as that sounds, I think it’s true.”

While there is nothing wrong with questioning things, I think it’s time for us all to decide it’s going to be a good day, a good month, a good year, a good relationship, a good job, a good faith, and — most of all — a good life.

What keeps your spirit intact? How do you live a good life?

Annie Reuter, is a freelance writer and music blogger who covers concerts and music festivals around the country. In constant pursuit of the next show to attend and band to interview, Annie keeps up her own music blog, You Sing, I Write, where she uncovers what it's really like to spend the day with a rock star.