3 Things I Learned in 2019

STEPPING OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE is the best way to garner new experiences, new understandings and new perspectives on life.

2019 was my most uncomfortable year and therefore the most interesting year. Every step along the way, I veered off the path and the results were mixed, some good, some not as good, but all led me to a better understanding of life and more importantly, growth. It seems pretty obvious that if you want to experience new things you have to try new things, but it’s been a hard thing for me to do. I’m a very…safe person and for me to step out of my carefully crafted, safe and oriented mentality was a challenge, perhaps why I’ve never done it out of my own volition before. But this year, I tried to throw caution to the wind and just try, and I’m so glad I did.

Something I started implementing this year as a way to continue to step out of my comfort zone, and to just do things I’ve always wanted was setting a goal every month to try something new. It could be big or small, but it had to be something I’ve never done before. And 2020 has twelve more months of new and exciting experiences to come.

LETTING GO makes room for new things to grow. 

I first learned the beauty of letting go in 2016, when I was finally able to cast out some people who had not only hurt me but had casted me out too. It was a freeing feeling then and it was a freeing feeling now. Except this time, I let go out of choice rather than necessity. As someone who holds on to things for as long as I can, letting go when I technically didn’t have to was a weird sensation. But ultimately, this fall, I learned why the trees let go of leaves even when they’re beautiful; it’s to make room for new buds to grow.

In 2020, the spring will grow new things in the spaces I have created.

IT’S OKAY TO NOT KNOW where you’re going next, what you’re doing next, or how you’re going to get there.

Graduating college leaves the whole world at your feet with no direction or structure that school has always provided, it’s exciting but terrifying. And six months into it, I can assure you that it’s perfectly okay to not know where you want to go next. I certainly don’t. And I think most people don’t, it’s next to impossible to have every single thing figured out. All you need is a small step, in any direction, just as long as it’s a step. You can step off a path you don’t like, but you need to be on a path to know you don’t like it.

Step by step, I hope to have figured out more of my life in the year to come.