In a world where almost every day seems the same, I realized I was stuck in a rut. Nothing seemed to excite me as it used to and my motivation began to dwindle. With that, I took a self-aware approach to start romanticizing my life in order to make every interaction throughout the day mean something to me. Does this mean that I am always happy? No, absolutely not because like any human being I also have my bad days. Being a hopeless romantic in every sense of that phrase, I began to treat my life as if I was the “main character.” I stopped caring what others thought of me and began this romanticizing journey of my life by sitting down and reflecting on what truly made me happy.
Romanticizing your life doesn’t always have to mean doing lavish things or going on a lot of dates: it can be as simple as buying yourself flowers or dancing around your room to your favorite playlist. To me, romanticizing my life is falling back in love with myself — which by the way, has been the greatest love I’ve ever felt. It is about feeling comfortable being alone and from my favorite song by Sabrina Claudio, Confidently Lost, “I’m alone but I’m not lonely.”
Seeing as COVID has trapped us inside, for the most part, I started using any occasion to get out of the house as an opportunity to dress up to make myself feel like I am about to walk a runway. I also realized I used to read all of the time but with COVID and Zoom University I really put it off, so I started again. It was really the little things that made me start to feel alive. I picked up little hobbies like making string friendship bracelets and coloring in an anti-stress book. Overall, I began to realize that I was happier and more motivated. Treating myself as if I was dating myself made me learn so much more about myself and what I liked and didn’t like.
As I said, I am a hopeless romantic in every sense of the phrase, so I started taking myself out on “dates”. From walking on a trail to going to get a cup of coffee by myself, or looking at books at Barnes and Nobles, I started treating myself the way I would want to be treated. Romanticizing my life allowed me to expand the way I thought and get out of my comfort zone and leave a lot of toxic relationships.
My life feels brighter, more saturated, and overall I feel lighter and unstoppable. One small act of looking at things as the “main character” allowed me to uncover so many things about myself that I hadn’t known before. Once you realize that nothing is ever that deep and to just live life to the fullest, everything begins to feel better. Not every day will be great, but with romanticizing life, you can find the great in each day.