Jan 25, 2015

rule #78

Several years ago, my friend (we'll call her J) and I took a page out of Gibbs' book and started coming up with our own 'rules of life'. They're pretty great - almost all are relevant to everyday life, and they're good things to remember.
We haven't added any new ones in a while, and I've since taken our rules and made my own list. As time goes on, I'm sure I'll cut them down even more and rearrange some, but for now, it's our original list with some rules redacted and a few added.
Up until yesterday, no one had ever contributed to a rule besides Meagan (aside from J and I... and the few we took from NCIS).
Bruce added #78: Know what to take seriously.
At first, I took it a little like a joke. That's so HIM, and so not me, and it's funny. I take things so much more seriously than he does, so of course that would be his addition.
I've been thinking about it, though, and maybe he's right. Maybe getting so worked up over the little things really isn't the best way to live life.
[I'm mocking myself here; of course it's not the way to live life, but somehow, my brain refuses to understand that.]

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, other than it's a new rule and I'm thinking about it a lot more than I have any other rule.

Jan 1, 2015

2015

I meant to have this posted before the new year, but painting won last night, so I'm just going to let that slide. 
2014 was not a fun year for me. Yes, there were great parts, but on the whole, the year was pretty tough. The end of 2013 was hectic and confusing, and then it didn't feel like winter break was long enough to decompress, and the spring semester of 2014 hit with the equivalent force of a belly flop from a high dive. Mix into that some personal issues, the end of a toxic relationship that was nasty and bad for me 'til the very end, the loss of an organization that I'd been on the leadership team for six years and a member of for even longer, and a bunch of really hard classes, and I was ready for summer. 
Summer was fun. I went a lot of places and did a lot of things, but that only made the fall semester a little easier. Once again, it was tough keeping up. I only had four classes - the fewest ever - so I agreed to do a musical at my old high school. It was tons of fun, but my classes turned out to be really demanding. Then I got sick - and stayed that way for over three weeks. Somewhere in there, I turned 22. I pulled my first and only all-nighter on the night before my last day of classes, on which I didn't actually have classes. I was done with finals by the first Thursday of December, went to a cookie exchange in San Antonio on Saturday, and my grandfather came to visit the following week. I graduated on the 13th, and it's pretty much been a whirlwind of holiday things and getting life back in order. 

So now it's 2015. I have high hopes for this year. Lots of things are going to be different. I've made a few resolutions, but they all generally center around being a better person... and being kinder to myself. That's a big thing. I'm not in the practice of putting up with other people's nonsense, but I also don't like hurting people, which is often at my own expense. I have a habit of getting mad at or annoyed with people, but never saying why I'm mad. I don't take very good care of myself and everyone knows that I stress and worry way too much. All of these are areas that I plan to work on in the next 365 days. 

I'd also like to get more sleep. 

I'm not really interested in diving into all of the details that made last year a pain in the butt, but if I can learn from them and be better for them moving forward, then all's well that ends well. 

Happy New Year!