Usually every year for New Year’s I have a special list of things I want to work on to keep myself growing and improving to be a better person. These things are usually goals like ‘be more patient’ or ‘focus more on specific topics in school’. I think about what I want to do better and what I should work on all through December and make a plan for the New Year of how I’m going to practice each one.
This year, it was a little bit more difficult to come up with things I should work on and exercises I can do to make sure I enforce them. All year, we have been cooped up inside and every social media platform is swamped with ideas of picking up new hobbies or how to work on self improvement. There have also been an equal amount of posts about self love and taking care of yourself during the pandemic. In the beginning of December, I started looking back at the year to prepare my New Year’s Resolutions list but after a year that felt like ten, there weren’t a lot of things I wanted to write down. We have all slipped into habits this year just to keep ourselves entertained and keep moving forward, so anything I wanted to improve on seemed like a disservice to all the world is going through. This notion, however, got me thinking.
This year, instead of changing or working on anything, I want to be more understanding and in tune with my own needs. It has been a weird year and everyone is exhausted. In 2021, I hope that we can all take a quick step back and see what we personally need. Dropping one class won’t destroy your college experience if you feel like it is too much. Eating that fourth cookie isn’t the end of the world. Go outside, take an hour to just listen to music, watch that extra episode; this year, I want to be gentler with myself and listen to what my emotions are telling me.
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