My last week as a 23 yr old.

Above is a picture of my 2024 vision board. I made this about 3 months into the year and it was quite a therapeutic and joyful experience. And more so joyful considering all of my adult life thus far was filled with a type of 'live in the moment and let life happen' mentality.

Or to put it more accurately (not that I would admit it at the time), I did not think I had a future. Not then.

All praise to God that I can say different this year! To make a vision board where I saw a vision of a future past today and was excited for it-

Beyond words.

Tears were shed in the making of it. To have ambitions for the new year, an excitement and fervor for things I thought out of reach were beyond anything I knew to comprehend or even try to articulate at the time. And now. There are just some things you cannot express and that is okay.

I am trying to do so now because I have had months to bask in the joy this new realization brought me. A mindset that this brand new year of 2024 was given by the grace of God. I am aware we still have more of the year to go, I just wanted to share in these last moments of my birth year some key life lessons that got me to this point.

That have allowed me to see a future again and be excited!

This past birthday calendar year, I have learned quite a lot. Some of the more important lessons I have decided to share here today. I want to disclaim that these lessons are by no means revolutionary or original.

They are also not going to be in order of importance to my life. All have had such enormous impacts. I don't want to get lost in the sauce of percentage of impact, rather I would like to focus on the importance of what these lessons have taught.

1. Forgiveness heals you. Physically and emotionally.

Praise the Lord for this one in particular!

Forgiveness heals.

It is a personal act of healing and growth. And I want this to be a teacher pulling out a megaphone in a 4x5 desk capacity classroom type of declaration (I don't know how this imagery got in my head. Don't question, just trust the process.)

Forgiveness is not dependent on another individual.

Often forgiveness will not come with an apology from the one you feel like has wronged you. And that is okay. You do not NEED them to come to you. Granted that is nice; it is not a necessity.

When you extend forgiveness, a physical and emotional weight is lifted. You no longer bear the burden of responsibility. You can set it aside and not look back! (read the exclamation mark as excitement)

Note: this is not a one and done act. It has the potential to be a reoccurring process in your life for the same thing and the same person.

2. Living with yourself is a hard but necessary element of growing.

When I say "living with yourself", I am referring to the act of being able to sit in silence. To bear the silence and your own thoughts. And in turn the consequence of what that could mean.

I want to make clear that the term consequence is merely "a result or effect of an action or condition." (Verbatim from the all-knowing google search bar.) It is not an automatic positive or negative. I just want to make clear that although we often put a negative connotation on the word, the word itself is not inherently negative.

If you are anything like I am, true silence is hard to endure. I often have You tube playing in the background, I am always planning the next chore or work thing I have to do, if there is some time free in the day I schedule out something to fill it because I have to be moving at all times. Doing things at all times. And overall just being a productive human being.

Hmmm. . .

sounds like. . .

'Productivity culture/mindset!'

You know, I have come to a late realization that 'productivity culture' is not the most healthy of mindsets one can have. One maybe could even use that as a from of escape, a sense of accomplishment, a sense of self-validation.

In themselves not bad things.

The real question is: can we sit in the silence with our thoughts when all that needs to be done has been? Or are we creating more so we don't have to find out?

Living in the silence of life is harder than the statement suggests. It means you are able to live in the silent moments and be able to handle the thoughts your mind conjures up. The truths and the lies. To answer back with what is real and true. To live with the mistakes and the regret and remember that does not encompass all of who you are. It is a part of you though and that is something you should not ignore. The good and the bad make the full story that got you here and formed what we see today.

And what a beautiful story it creates!

3. Be content.

Yes that plain and simple.

It is also the hardest. Learning to be content (a continuous, day-by-day process let me tell you) in every area of life: work, school, living situation, finances, long-term gratification, maybe not getting what you thought you wanted at all, etc.- is the greatest key to a life with less stress, headaches, muscle tension, worry, anxiety, and probably more that I forgot or have not even experienced yet.

It is also one of the hardest lessons to grab a hold of.

This life comes with pain. It is hard to learn to be content with the pain. It is even harder when we realize waves of storm will crash us again and again with little reprieve. It is hard to know that and be content through it all.

The message of hope that I can give- the pain IS kinder when you are content.

In conclusion, those are some of the biggest life lessons I have been taught throughout this year. Ones that at least I have some thoughts on and articulation of. I plan to implement them in my next year of life as well and I hope this has been in any way, shape, or form helpful to you.

At the very least entertaining!

And I am so excited to be back to writing again! I have always had a love for this art form and I truly am blessed it exists in the world!

To another great year of life, the conclusion of one year and the beginning of another!