Sunday, November 16, 2014

Sunday Funday: 8 Things I Learned While on Hiatus

Image Credit: Chloe Hague. via PhotoPin CC
Hi there! It feels like it's been so long since I last opened up Blogger and sat down to write something. Probably because it has. I won't even go back to see when my last post was because then I'll feel all kinds of guilty and I'm just not in the mood for that.

I'm sorry that I've been away for a bit, but I'm going to keep the excuses to a minimum here. Of course, I've been away because I've been so busy and today is going to be my busiest day yet (and I have NO IDEA how I'm going to handle it). However, after this whole little wave, I should be good for another, err, week before Christmas cardmaking starts and I die in a whole sea of cardstock.

Today, I thought I'd do a little spin on my usual Sunday Funday and share with you what I've learned over these few weeks.

Breaks are healthy

I'm most definitely someone who's guilty of thinking that I can do everything that I want to get done without really thinking of taking a break to recharge. Like a proper break. I learned that while (from observation) I've been able to work for longer periods of time without a break compared to some, I still need to take a proper, guilt-free break more often.

Negative energy is all around you and it's up to you what you want to do with it

I didn't have as great of a start to sophomore year as I did last year. Maybe it's a thing with new beginnings and being on Cloud 9 for too long that make more "ordinary" things seem a bit more glum. And one mildly negative thought leads to another and another and another. 

I found that over the past two weeks or so, I've let myself be exposed to some people's comments that just aren't the nicest (towards other people, not me) and I didn't handle them very well. I let those moments consume my thoughts for the rest of the day and it just bothered me greatly. Now looking back on it, I realised that instead of thinking about it all day, I should've said to myself, "Okay, this person said this and I thought it was rude to another human being. I can either choose to continue to be friends with this person and let it slide (and if it happens too many more times..., or distance myself away. Pick a side, J."

It's simple, really.

You can't always win and that's okay

I'm a competitive person. That's the trait that I dislike the most because that competitiveness can boil over and I can easily become this nasty, green, jealous person 24/7. I learned that I don't have to make everything a competition, I don't always have to be the best, and I really should just pick my own battles. Wisely.

Getting personal with J here, eh?

It's important to put as much into a relationship as you're getting because if you don't, at once point, you'll stop getting anything from that relationship

By relationship, I don't mean a romantic one in my case. Of course, the same applies, but I'm thinking more of relationships between family members, friends, etc. I can get a bit neglectful of the people in my life when I get busy. In my mind, I can only focus on so many things at once, and once all of those places have been taken up, making conversation at lunch when my brain is going off of six to seven hours of sleep and the very thought of my to-do list drives me insane wasn't the highest thing on my list of priorities.

It might not be #1, but it should definitely be higher on my list because I feel like I need to appreciate the people in my life a hell of a lot more.

Food can be the (temporary) solution to everything

I'm a huge food lover. I'd say I'm a foodie, but I'm pretty sure that's for people who are in the food industry, and even if it isn't, I still feel like that word would inaccurately describe me.

My point is, food holds a special place in my heart (and stomach!), so a lot of the times, when I'm feeling extremely overwhelmed, I just need to remind myself that taking a quick break to go cook something is always a good idea.

Planning ahead is only effective if you plan for mishaps and set-backs

As I said before, I'm guilty of thinking I can do everything, so when I'm writing my to-do lists, I often forget that things will come up that I have no control over and will mess with my schedule. Sometimes, I'll plan far, far into the future and then those plans end up being useless because something came up that messed with it all. 

Basically, the next time that I sit down to plan something, I learned that I need to be more mindful of that.

Proper sleep is so crucial

I don't get enough sleep and I don't think many teenagers do. That being said, that shouldn't be an excuse for me to continue getting inadequate amounts of sleep because that's just not healthy. I've noticed (and it's only logical, really) that if I don't get enough sleep, I won't have enough energy to do anything, namely working out, which leads to me feeling gross and sluggish. 

Starting from today, I'm determined to get myself on a proper sleeping schedule. If you're reading this right now and know me in real life, please yell at me about this. Please, for the sake of my sanity.

Embrace spontaneity whenever possible

I did something really... different on Friday. I was texting B after school and she told me that she was headed to the mall close-ish to my house and asked me if I wanted to come along with her. Since we live on opposite ends of the city, whenever we do find the time to hang out, it's usually been planned for a couple weeks or at the very least one week, so spontaneous just isn't something that has been very present at all in our friendship recently.

I had plans for dinner later that night, but I decided to go anyway and taking that decision to just go see her was one of the most rewarding things. I'm pretty sure we hadn't seen each other for like two months and I've been so busy that I haven't been able to talk to her very much at all these past two weeks, so it was so, so, so, nice to her again.

On a side note, if you want to see pictures of the food we had at dinner, feel free to scroll down and drool. :)

Mom's ahi tuna salad that I ate half of
My chicken and mushroom mac and cheese (my first ever mac and cheese!!!)
Dad's enormous burger
The whole table
The best part of it all... maple bread pudding
Are there any lessons here that you can relate to? Anything else you have to add to the list? How have you been these past few weeks? I miss you guys. Share your thoughts in a comment below!


Thank you so much for reading!
- J


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