Lessons Learned: Summer 2018
Relationships take time. It’s okay if not everyone likes or trusts you right away (or ever). Put energy into those relationships that are working.
You don’t have to wear eyeliner or mascara everyday, especially if your eyes itch or you cry when you laugh.
It’s okay to be sad, tired, and lonely. What you have to figure out is how you sit in that space. Do you use your loneliness to push others away or do you reach out and invite them in? Do you throw yourself a pity party or do you stand closer to joy? How are you using these feelings as a test, as an opportunity, and as a way to challenge your current way of being.
Find adventures and go to places that make you feel alive. Sit on a beach for hours with a book. Tube down a river. Run. Wander. Walk with no destination. Just do things that keep you moving.
Set boundaries. Keeping them is hard, but practicing the words in real time in real conversations with real people is scary and fun. Sometimes, you can even feel your insides shifting and growing by just saying, “That hurt, you can’t do that again.” Who knew you had the right to say that to another person and not have to explain it? Not me.
Get yourself flowers, but go to the guy in Harvard Square who loves picking out the prettiest ones. Don’t be afraid to tell him what you like, either. Pinks and whites. Lots of greens. Whimsical. Wedding flowers on a Thursday is what you need when you’re sick of looking at the same thing every day.
What you packed to wear is enough. Wear your overralls and facilitate the shit out of that meeting.
No more thank you’s or sorry’s. You deserve all of the opportunities. You deserve every single offer. You deserve to be paid and compensated well. Gratitude is wonderful and important, but saying thank you all of the time is like making an apology for being there. You should have always been in the room.
Wear some color. Black is the ultimate shade of cool, but throw on a red dress or a yellow shirt as a reminder that you deserve to be seen.
Sit at the grown ups’ table. You are a FUCKIN’ GROWNUP.