Answering questions about life in post grad
The very special part of new years are resolutions. But this year, I’ve decided to set aside the resolutions in favor of some intentions. I LOVE resolutions and goal-setting, but I want 2022 to build in me some foundational habits that I want to carry forth in my life. I’ve been introduced through various books and podcasts to this idea of a Rule of Life. It’s a set of standards by which you are using to measure your life against.
For as long as I can remember, we’ve been fed this idea that 5am morning routines are what make millionaires millionaires. That productivity giants all have one thing in common-this unique gift of waking up early and crack the day while the rest of us snore a few more hours only to wake up exhausted, desperately needing a jolt of caffeine.
If you frequent the Internet, you know that the trend of being THAT GIRL exploded all over Tik Tok and made its way to Youtube. That Girl is the aesthetically healthy, has-her-life-together girl. While some people loved the trend of that girl, others found it too rooted in aesthetics of a particular class. That Girl has a connotation that can exclude some people from fitting into the trend. That said, in a healthy context, when That Girl is taken to mean a woman’s healthy version of herself, I believe that girl is actually a beautiful thing to encourage and to have trending. The thing about That Girl is behind being a healthy person, there is so much hard, deep work that needs to be done to actually be well.
Back in March, I wrote a post on journaling prompts and I gave you 5 questions to write about during your week in order to be more intentional and reflective on where you are in life. I wanted to do another one of these because journaling is such a good way to process ideas and turn thoughts into an action plan. It’s also great when you feel overwhelmed with your emotions but don’t necessarily feel like unloading on someone when you are full of emotion.
As someone who has wanted to start a blog and then started it, I love writing. I love putting words on a page and making the thoughts in my head coherent. But academic writing has always been the sort of writing that was draining instead of life giving. I have loved all of my English teachers immensely. They’ve boosted my love for literature and I don’t fault them for my troubles with academic writing.
Most of your choices you never even think about. They’re automatic. You reach for your phone when you first wake up. You head to the kitchen and make coffee (or tea - if you have taste lol).
In quarantine, we have an opportunity to live differently than before. We have the option to do less or to live at a less hurried pace. Even for those with children and work right now, every day doesn’t have to be a sprint. We can choose the pace at which we live in order to add more peace into our lives.
The black men and women being slaughtered at the hands of the people who are supposed to protect them, and the hundreds of years of oppression that have kept black people burdened and shackled to lives born out of systemic injustice.
In quarantine, we have the opportunity to examine the state of our lives before all the upheaval and how we want to move and act when things return to normal.
Right before my big trip back to Virginia for spring semester began, I was overcome with emotion. I had traveled to school on my own before. I had been apart from my parents for many months.