As my second year of college comes to a close, I sit here and reflect. I think about all the days, the nights, the mornings, the classes, the experiences, the highs and the lows and I just wonder. In some ways I wonder how I did it, how I made it. I still have one week left and it will probably be the hardest, aka finals week, in which I’ll spend my days drinking coffee (nothing out of the ordinary), studying, writing papers, building models, and designing. The exhausted college student in me dreads it, but the same exhausted college student in me relishes these moments because they are all small pieces of the giant puzzle of my life and who doesn’t like puzzles (besides a large percent of the population), am I right?
This past year was probably one of the most challenging. I was tested. I was exhausted. I was anxious. I was upset. I was angry. But I was also extremely happy. I was giddy. I was open-minded.
I was growing.
Sophomore year has been a whirlwind to say the least, and below I list some of the lessons I have learned throughout all the highs and lows.
1. SMILE: It seems so simple. Smiling. But we all have those days in which smiling seems near impossible. Everything seems to be going wrong and we’re angry and upset with the world, sometimes at ourselves, and smiling is the last thing we want to be doing. However, sometimes smiling is the only way to keep ourselves from crying. Being someone with a lot of anxiety, I constantly let little things bother me. The way someone looks at me (maybe they hate me), the way I answered a question (ugh what I said was so stupid why would I say that), etc etc. As stupid as it sounds, I can analyze these small moments for hours, days and I tell ya what I could easily let them grow into bigger thoughts that break me, but instead I smile. Some days I want nothing more than a good solid cry when the thoughts become so overwhelming and sometimes I do cry, but I always try to find a way to smile. If we let our demons or bad days get the best of us, we’ll crumble and there’s no reason for that! We’re not some poorly baked cookie damn it. There’s so much goodness in this world! So no matter what life brings at ya, keep smiling…sometimes it really is the best medicine.
2. BE HONEST w/ YOURSELF: Honesty is the best policy right? That’s how the saying goes so it must be true, and I think it is, but it’s definitely not easy. Sometimes being honest with yourself can hurt and sometimes so can being honest with others, so I think it’s all about finding the balance between brutal honesty and thoughtful honesty. Sometimes being honest with ourselves is harder than being honest with others, because we know how we operate, how we think, how we’ll react and all of those factors trigger our inability to sometimes see the truth. Often times it’s easier to be honest with others because we don’t feel what they feel. We empathize, but we can’t feel the physical and emotional strain the way they do. However we feel all of that and more when we’re dealing with ourselves. It can be challenging to be truthful to ourselves because we never want to believe that we’re hurting, or that we messed up, or that we did the best we could do and there’s nothing more to be done. We as humans, love to see fault in ourselves. Sometimes it’s there but other times it’s not, and I’ve learned that addressing both situations is so important to our health and growth as people. Be kind to yourself, but be truthful because that’s how we’ll become the best versions of ourselves.
3. TRY NEW THINGS: Whelp, this is scary one. Also an exciting one, but yeah definitely a little scary. The idea of trying something new is one thing, but actually going through with it is a whole different story. This year has brought me many new experiences; some expected, some not but nonetheless they have made me grow. All in all, I learned that trying new things is important to just living! Having a routine is good, but sticking to that routine everyday can become boring. Eventually, we can forget how to live. We grow so accustomed to what we’re used to that we don’t think there’s anything else out there for us but we’re wrong! There’s always something new for us to try! Whether it’s the new cafe down the street, a first date with a possible love interest, or even a new Lays chip flavor, there’s always something for us to try. So even though it can sometimes be scary or out of our norm, JUST DO IT! TRY NEW THINGS! Be free and be adventurous because that’s when some of the best times of your life will be had.
4. TAKE A DEEP BREATH MY DUDE: I think this is something we all forget to do. We’re constantly going, whether it be to class, work, practice, study sessions, the clubs, we’re almost always on the move and a lot of the time we forget to breathe. Thank goodness we can breathe without thinking about it or most of us would probably be dead. Amidst all the chaos in your life, remember to take time and relax. Ease your mind. Calm your worries. Slow your heart beat (but not too slow of course). Take time for yourself. Don’t think. Don’t analyze. Just breathe. Be good to yourself and you’ll be good to others. So take a deep breath my dude, it’s essential to living a healthy life.
5. LEAN ON ME: Great song, am I right or am I right? So this one is all about friends. We all have them, no matter what we may think or how alone we may feel, we never are. We meet people in this life that for some reason, we just kind of like and enjoy being around so we start hanging out with them and eventually we kind of become this thing called friends. We laugh with them and joke with them, and eventually we start opening up to them, trusting them and forming this sort of bond. Something I’ve learned this year and something that I wrote about in another blog post has to do with the friendships we forge. I have always, always been lucky and blessed to have great friends in my life. Sometimes I wonder how they still like me after the nonsense I put them through, but then I realize that we are friends for a reason. They accept me at my lows, and a lot of the time they are the reason for my highs. I never like to burden (for lack of a better word) my friends with my problems because I know everyone has problems of their own, but this year I’ve realized that it’s okay. It’s okay to open up to your friends. At the end of the day, you’re friends for a reason. You and these people have chosen to share your lives with one another and that includes all the good and bad that may come with it. So don’t be afraid to lean on your friends. Let them be there for you. Don’t try and handle everything on your own. Build friendships and chose to strengthen them. Lean on your friends and let your friends lean on you, because none of you are meant to live this life alone.
So that’s it. Well, that’s it for this blog post. I know this one is kind of hefty so if you made it here thanks, I appreciate it and I hope that in some way all these words mean something to you. I hope that these lessons I’ve taken with me this past year are things that you’ll take with you in your life. It’s not easy, it never is, but it’s worth a shot. So SMILE, BE HONEST w/ YOURSELF, TRY NEW THINGS, TAKE A DEEP BREATH MY DUDE, AND LEAN ON ME…it’ll make life a whole lot sweeter.
Pb & Gel 