By now, we’re a few weeks into the new year.
Usually the new year doesn’t phase me because I know that I’ll still be in school and having a crazy busy schedule like every year. However, this year it’s different. I don’t think I can pinpoint what makes it seem different, but I have this gut feeling that this year is going to be an overall amazing year. My friend once told me, “there are years for asking questions, and there are years for getting answers.” Last year was definitely a year for asking questions for me personally. When I heard that saying I started to reflect on this past year because honestly, it was one of the worst years of my life. As awful as that sounds I ended up learning a lot.
1. It’s okay to ask for help and lean on your friends for support when you need it.
I don’t know about you but I absolutely hate admitting and asking for help from others. This took me awhile to learn to accept because I kept telling myself that I was fine and nothing was wrong when in reality I was nowhere near fine. It came to a point where I had to get over myself and acknowledge the fact that I had a lot going on and couldn’t handle everything by myself. Luckily, I have a very supportive group of friends that were there for me with literally everything. They were there on the days when I struggled to do simple tasks such as getting out of bed and there to calm me down when I felt as if my own head was screaming 100 different things at me all at once.
2. There’s going to be days where you feel like you’re on top of the world and others where you feel like you’re at rock bottom.
To my knowledge, everyone has their ups and their downs (if not please tell me how you manage to always stay feeling on top of the world). Seriously though college is tough, trying to balance school, work, having time to workout, get enough sleep, eat, extracurriculars, and have a social life. It’s exhausting half the time I’m not even sure how I manage it, but I promise you on the days that you feel like you’re on top of the world and can accomplish anything remember that feeling. For the days where you feel like nothing is going the way you want it to or feel like you’re at rock bottom do things that make you happy. It sounds dumb I know but little things that bring you joy or that help you forget even for a moment that everything’s going to be okay helps more than you probably think.
3. View this year as a fresh start with new opportunities.
As cliche as this might sound, it really is a fresh start for things. It’s a new start for a semester but also a clean slate for you as a person if you choose to go into this year with that mentality. Everyone makes new year’s resolutions but it’s up to that individual to keep up with them. This year instead of choosing resolutions I decided to make goals for myself and what I want to accomplish this year. So ya, they might be the same as resolutions but I’m personally a goal oriented person and using these goals to help me achieve what I want out of life. Whether you want to call them resolutions or goals, I suggest making something to try to accomplish this year. Also, tell your friends about them so when there’s those days where you’re feeling hopeless they’ll be there to remind you of your goals.
4. Take time for things that make you happy.
We all get so caught up in the little things in life, with the constant need to meet deadlines and making sure we’re on top of everything and ready for tomorrow that we often skip over making time for the things that bring us joy. I am also guilty of this, I would just go through the motions and try to make deadline and be a little prepared for the next day but that only caused my stress and anxiety levels to skyrocket. Over winter break I sat down and went through my year and thought of the things that caused me to be happy and a big one was that I didn’t make time for myself so I decided I wanted to change that. Now for this year, I decided to get up early everyday and start off with going to the gym on the days that I don’t have class until the afternoon to get a jump start on my day and to want to continue to be productive. The second thing that I incorporated in my schedule is to “dress up” everyday. I used to roll out of bed and give myself just enough time to make coffee and head to class. I felt rushed everyday and looked like a bum everyday. So now by getting up early I’m able to wear clothes that match and aren’t sweats and put make-up on, by looking like I have my life together I feel like I’m more on top of things and that I’m going to be productive. The last thing I changed is instead of watching Netflix or scrolling through social media until I can hardly keep my eyes open is reading 30 minutes before bed. I read a book that has nothing to do with school so I can take a hot minute to try and calm my mind before I fall asleep.