When I was younger, I used to love reading books and beginning a new chapter was always really exciting, especially if the last chapter wasn’t all that great or if it left off with a cliff-hanger. I like to think of new periods of time in my life as new chapters where new characters will be introduced, new plots will be explored and all in all, more new exciting things will come into my life. I think that with new scary unknowns in our life we almost need to find alternate ways to enjoy what’s new and to make them less scary for ourselves. Going into a new school year, my first school year on campus during a pandemic with so many things on my mind and so many things on my plate can feel extremely overwhelming at times, and for me to be able to twist the way that I look at things and alter my perspective might be childish, but it helps me get through the day and certainly keeps my anxious feelings at bay.
Maybe my mind is just full of these creative aspects that I am constantly thinking of my life like the plot of a movie or the plot of a book, and I just think that’s more exciting. I think it’s more exciting to look at your life in a way that makes your life more exciting in a way that, you know, romanticises all the things that you plan to do one day. Life can be so mundane and so stressful and full of anxiousness and nervousness and unknowns and I just find that thinking of your future as just a future chapter with all these exciting aspects, makes life easier, simple as that.
I really encourage you, whoever’s reading this, to try changing your perspective of new and uncertain things. September is a huge beginnings month, it’s the beginning of school it’s the beginning of a new year for many people and it’s also the end of summer the end of warm weather the beginning of fall at the end of summer. There’s a lot of things coming to an end and more things that are starting new, and that allows for a lot of growth, a lot of changing perspectives, and a lot of new so much new. When I say new, I just mean knew things new people new places new opportunities and although that can be filled with uncertainty, I think that this perspective allows for more excitement when it comes to meeting those new people and being in those new places and exploring those new opportunities.
I do think that as I’ve grown older, adults are almost expected to enjoy themselves less. I just feel like all adults really do is work and take care of themselves, take care of their kids, do their taxes pay bills and, you know, no offence to anybody who enjoys those things, but I don’t. I don’t enjoy those things, my August has been filled with those things (minus the taking care of kids because I don’t have any) but you know, I just feel like the past year I’ve been forced to grow up so quickly and take on all these adult things that I did not want to. I know when I was a teenager, all I wanted to do was be grown up, to make decisions for myself, to feel independent and now I feel like I want all is the opposite, and it’s hard to look at life with all these responsibilities and be excited about anything. It’s hard. So, I choose to look at my life in this creative way, I choose to look at new months as new chapters. I choose to look at new school years as new chapters. I set huge goals for myself at the beginning of every new season because I think that’s important and as I grow up, although I’ll be taking on more responsibility and probably working more, I still want to be happy and joyful and enthusiastic about everything that I do, so, if that means pretending my life is a storybook or a movie, I am going to do that because life is so short. To me, 20 years flew by like nothing, and every year goes by faster (or so it feels like) and I’ve started to put into perspective what I want in life, who I want in my life, the things that I want to do, the places that I want to see and the people that I want to do all the amazing fun things that life has to offer with.
So, if you are also anxious about the near future, COVID, school, a new job, etc. I encourage you to change your perspective a bit with your life and see where your imagination takes you.