Monthly Reflections: January 2017

New Year, New Me?

I can’t believe the first month of 2017 is almost over! For the first time ever, I didn’t make a list of New Years Resolutions. But instead, I made a list of goals that I wanted to achieve not only for this year but for the rest of my life.

But let’s backtrack, shall we? I want to rewind all the way back to New Year’s Eve/Day.

A friend of mine and I had met up at your typical college sports bar to celebrate the end of what was a horrible year and to new adventures that the upcoming year held for us. It was a night that I will never forget.

Throughout the night, conversations shifted about what the new year will bring. I’d thought I would share with you all what stuck with me from that night.

Wishes and Hopes

The longer you wish for something, the longer it will take for it to come true. Wishing forces you to live in an unrealistic future and you forget the now. Stop wishing and start doing.

Hope gives the notion that things won’t change and creates an illusion that while you’re in the now, you actually aren’t.

Dear Life

A few days into 2017, I had the chance to watch a film called “Dear Zindagi”, which in English translates to “Dear Life”. It was one of the most profound Hindi films I had ever seen and highly recommend everyone check it out. It gave me a new perspective on how I live my life. Here are some “light bulb moments” that I took away from watching this film.

Life is a journey and it never ends. We meet people along the way and we lose people just the same. We never know who will join us whether it be the same people or new ones.

As cliche as that sounds, something inside me just clicked. People come and go. It’s bound to happen. Over the years, I’ve had people enter my life and one way or another have helped shaped who I have become today.

Don’t live life in the past. What we can do now is focus on the future because time goes forwards not backward.

I’ve been doing that a lot lately. Always going back to the past and trying to figure out what I did wrong that things happened the way they did. The only way you can go is forward and learn from your mistakes in the past. It allows you to grow as a person.

If you don’t take charge of your life, then someone else will.

In all reality, no one can truly tell you what you can and can’t do

If you don’t cry wholeheartedly, how will you laugh wholeheartedly?

Sometimes, you just gotta let it out. Keeping emotions bottled up inside is never a good thing

I believe broken things can be put back together.

Let’s be honest. 2016 wasn’t the greatest year for anyone, myself included. There were times that broke us down into tiny little pieces and left us lost, confused and scared straight. Personally, I didn’t know where I was going and what I was supposed to be doing with this life that I was given. The low points definitely outweighed the high points. If anyone reading this ever feels like they are worthless, broken, unwanted, unloved, etc. let me tell you, being broken is only a temporary feeling. Over time, you put yourself back together. No one else.

Don’t let the past blackmail your present to ruin a beautiful future.

We often take a blast to the past to refer to what went wrong and how we cannot let history repeat itself.  Everyone, I’m sure, has something from their past that they aren’t proud of. But when I heard this line, something inside me just clicked. Past experiences shape us but don’t define us. We learn from our mistakes and use these lessons learned to ensure that we have a more positive future.

Life is like a jigsaw puzzle. People help us find the missing pieces and put them back together,  but only you can complete the puzzle.

We all need help along the way, and that’s okay. People can give you all the tools you need to succeed and be the best person you can be. But they can’t tell you how to use them. It’s up to you to figure it out.

Balance

Along with many other college students, the new semester is in full swing and has hit me like a ton of bricks. Trying to balance the workload of my classes and my writing has become a little more challenging that I’ve originally anticipated.

The Odyssey Online

As most of you already know, for the last few months I have been a contributing writer to The Odyssey Online. While it was an amazing experience writing for a platform that let my voice be heard to a large audience, I was having trouble meeting the weekly deadlines and coming up with articles that would be separate from the blog.

Starting this semester, I would no longer be a contributing writer to the Odyssey Online. I made this decision because I knew that before the semester began, I had to rethink my priorities. Academics was number one on the list.

Academics was number one on the list. It always has been. My main goal is to finish my degree and graduate. I knew that I was going to have a heavy workload and that most of my time outside of the classroom would be dedicated to homework and research.

I didn’t want to add something else on my plate when I had enough to focus on already. As of right now, the only platform that I want to showcase my writing is on this blog here.

Scheduling and Planning

A key component to keeping myself on all I have to do scheduling everything and planning my tasks ahead of time. How I do this is by using a handy dandy planner and multiple calendars. Some of you might think that I might be going a little overboard, but just hear me out.

On the Go

I have a weekly planner that I use to write down all of my assignments and notes for my classes that need to be accomplished for that week and any other events or activities that I have to attend to. As a busy college student, it’s easy to know what needs to be accomplished for the day. I don’t have to lug all my books everywhere I go, just what I need for the day. I also have a calendar app on my phone as well as my computer. This is just used as reminders of what class I have when and any meetings I have that day. This is super useful for keeping me on time and I’ve never been late to a class or meeting.

Working from Home

When I’m not rushing in between classes or studying in the library, I like to work where I feel the most comfortable: my room. Instead of taking out my planner, I use a dry erase calendar. The dry erase calendar is a more of a stationary version of my weekly planner. It helps me know what to expect in the weeks ahead.

Classes by Color

In order to make everything easier to read, I also color coordinate each class and activity by color. This definitely comes in handy when it gets close to exam time and I have a lot of papers to complete along with meetings and other opportunities that I get when preparing for my life after graduation. It’s super helpful for me when I’m in the library or in my room and I already have the assignments that I need to complete for my classes.

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life that you are proud of, and if you find out that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

What did you learn from this month? Did you make any resolutions? Let me know in the comments below!