Hey, guys – welcome back to TNTH!
Today is Christmas Eve. Man, time flies.
A week from now, we are going to be celebrating the new year: 2018. It makes me look back on the year I had, and although it was a rocky one, here are the top 3 things I definitely learned in 2017:
- Life is too short. My uncle passed away spontaneously in February, and since then it’s scarred me. He was living with my family and me when this happened, and every now and then I think back at the last time I saw him leave the front door to go out for the night. Who would’ve known that would be the last time I saw him? It was hard, and it’s still hard to think about, but it’s definitely taught me that life is way too short to be negative and to let it take over you. After he died, I always tell myself that I don’t ever want to go to bed angry at someone I love or go to bed sad or upset. I also don’t wanna go to bed knowing that I had the absolute worst day of my life. I mean, bad days are going to happen, but make sure that you did everything you can to turn the day around, and always look at bad days as lessons.
- Acknowledge your anxiety, stop using it as a crutch. For a while, I allowed myself to slack off and act in a certain matter because I have anxiety. Before, I never expressed it because I felt ashamed of it. Now, I feel like I deal with it better now that I acknowledge its presence in my life. Yeah, it prevents me to this day to do things I want to do, but to allow it to take me away from doing things I did once before is using it as a crutch. Oh, I didn’t do my assignment because I was anxious about it. I didn’t want to go to class tonight because my anxiety was acting up. I found myself falling into that deep hole this year, and it’s taught me that yes, I do struggle with anxiety and there are just certain situations where I’m not ready to be in because of it, but using it against something that I would do without it ever being a problem makes it a crutch, and no one should use their mental illness or issues as a crutch to get the easy way out of things. Try it first. Overcome it. You never know.
- “Make room for the entrees and stop getting full off of the appetizers.” My partner, Obie, told me this little gem the end of 2016 and it didn’t make any sense to me until I saw the effects it left on me this year. Whether it was “minor” people, “minor” problems, “minor” life events, or “minor” annoyances that were considered appetizers, I learned that not everyone is meant to have your time, problems have solutions, you will bounce back from minor life events, and annoyance is a temporary feeling. Your entrees in life are the things that motivate you, inspire you, support you, and constantly lift you up. Making room for your entrees simply means that you are separating the major things and the minor things and taking into consideration what are the important things in your life. If you keep getting “full” off of the minor things/issues in life, you’re not getting fulfilled. You are constantly looking for that fulfillment to keep you satisfied. This year I always wondered why one month I felt really great about myself and life but the next one that came I felt absolutely horrible. The appetizers in life will distract you from what you really came for: that juicy ass steak in the entrees section!
I plan on making 2018 my comeback year. There are going to be so many amazing things happening in the next year that I am so ready for. 2017 you’ve been rough, but 2018 is gonna show me how tough I really am. Thank you, 2017, for making me wiser & stronger.
What are some of the things you learned in 2017?
-Liz. (:
Letters From Liz. 