Something in the air

I started this year with a lot of apprehension about what I thought was to come... or to not come. The last few years have been particularly rough for me because of a plethora of personal circumstances- finishing school, adjusting to some strained friendships, suffering from small-town claustrophobia, and just having high hopes for the immediate future.

But now that I'm 8 months into the year, which have just felt like a tiny blip on my time continuum, I'm starting to realize that I'm exactly where I need to be in my life right now. Despite all the turmoil that's going on in the world around me... unexpected deaths, national political troubles, and the harshness of global circumstances, my personal life seems to be moving up at record speeds.

Just when I was starting to feel anxious about not being in school anymore and getting stuck working for a hypocritically opinionated local newspaper, I was accepted to my #1 grad school in London- one major dream being realized. With some courage and the help of some great people, I've mended a few broken friendships that I now feel REALLY WERE worth all the trouble. And I think that all I needed this whole time... was to remember that I had a genuine desire to be better and a natural need to seek out change, rather than try to cling to the past.

But if any of this teaches me one thing, it's that change truly is inevitable. And it's solely up to us how we deal with it. Positivity is not an easy thing to come by, especially when the people surrounding you are so comfortable with where they are that they try to avoid change at all costs.

Luckily for me in the past 8 months, there really is something in the air that's turning things around. While the world may be in a tough and transitionally awkward place, probably due to the handful of power-hungry politicians making all the decisions, the most important PERSONAL lesson to learn here is that you can affect everything around you by searching for what's real and learning how to be understanding instead of judgmental.

We can't fix everybody and everything, but how are we supposed to get closer to all the good if we don't start with ourselves first?