To greet the new year, everyone finds something they want to bring into their life and they find the turning of the number to be a great time to make the change. This can range from dieting to not drinking soda to making sure you call your parents every day. For me, I couldn’t find anything that was just one and done on my agenda. I want to do it all: diet, take care of my health, improve my grades, work hard at my job and in my home all while being a great dog mom. Which lead me to a mental recreation of the hard or soft shell taco commercial where the little girl solves world peace and gives them the idea of having both. This realization brought me to my “Year of Yes.”
So far things have been going great. In all honesty, I have been going strong for exactly fourteen days. Even though I had been starting to say yes for future events a while ago, I continue to get into whatever I can in my free time. Even though this month I think I have been my busiest, especially with winter break. BUT, within these 14 long and hard days, I have learned a lot about my limits and how far I can push myself. I’ve had some days I wish I could alter parts from, but I find that learning and discovering new things through failure still have an impact on our lives that we should explore. At the same time, I become fearful about the future because I have no idea what to expect. This marks the beginning of a hard-working journey to learn self-exploration through doing what I love. At the same time, yikes.
Some fears I have can range from small to large, but one of the few that I keep reviving is what will occur when I reach my limit and how will I fix it. When I say fix, I hint at my mental health because stress is one of the biggest aging tools to hit college students around the world. I go over scenarios in my head and slightly freak out before calming myself down. I remind myself of past achievements I once found unreachable and now I am going beyond what I have already proved myself. I am sure one day those words won’t be enough, and I might find myself ugly crying on the main campus. For now, I am doing a good job of finding a hopeful side to chaos. Something I have found that makes it easy to get up another day is to have a couple of hours of free time to enjoy myself and my dog. Sometimes, I converse with my roommates and unwind before diving in again for another four hours. But always remember to breathe!
The main point of all this is to try! As humans, all we can do is try because that is how we succeed. I will be sure to make an update later on in the semester on how this “Year of Yes” went. My hope is to achieve everything I have on my list, but even if I don’t, the determination in trying something new and figure out what you can’t is just as good as finding your strengths. College is about learning, and it doesn’t only apply to the classroom. Set your goals and go for them.