In thirty days, I went to dance classes even though I can’t dance and visited art galleries even though I never understand what the paintings are actually saying. In thirty days, I put more effort into making others feel valued and becoming the friend I wanted to have. In thirty days, I held more genuine conversations than ever before, felt unadulterated bliss, laughed so hard light poured in through my broken pieces, and experienced the pure and utter disbelief that this was how beautiful life could be.
I just had the best thirty days of my life. And here's what I learned.
1. Your life will change immensely once you start filling it with passion.
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Surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard you start to cry. Put energy into projects that light your soul on fire. Make conversations authentic and important. This is where your purpose comes in.
2. Confronting your mental health will change everything.
3. Practicing gratitude is so important.
Send that appreciation text to your best friend. Send a DM to the girl you lost touch with. Send love to the classmate you were irrationally jealous of all throughout high school. Everyone deserves to know the impact that they have on people. Everyone deserves to know that they matter.
4. Hugs make the world go around.
5. Trying new things is scary.
And when you're five steps behind everybody in a hip-hop class, it can be the literal worst thing in the world. But you never know what undiscovered place or hobby will fill your heart with joy. It's scary to try new things, but it's always worth it.
6. The phrase, “regression to the mean” is true.
There will be nights where your knees will fail you and you will fall to the floor and you will cry, nights where every cell in your body will hurt and you will want to cease to exist.
And then there will be nights where you drive down the highway and see the silhouettes of the trees against the backdrop of the city and hear your favorite song on the radio and feel so whole you could explode.
In the end, our lives are defined by neither of these moments. It can't be all good or all bad—eventually, things come back to the middle.
7. It becomes easy to lose sight of things that will be important to you in the long-run.
No one has mastered balance, even if you think they have. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least try.
8. Not every person you meet has to be "the one."
9. But if you can't do the casual dating thing, or the casual hookup thing, or the casual anything because at the end of the day, it’s not you—that’s okay.
10. There is so much art and life and beauty you haven't seen yet.
It's out there. And it's expecting you.
