30 Things (November's Ongoing Blog)

I don’t think I’ve ever done one of these, but in my psychology textbook, it went into depth about all the benefits of gratitude on a person’s well-being. According to what I read, it can help redirect your thoughts towards the positive, and in turn elicit more positive emotions. It also said that having more gratitude has shown to have multiple benefits including less anxiety, more happiness and life satisfaction, optimism, and lower blood pressure. So, I guess this is an experiment of sorts, because all those things sound great.

I know traditionally people usually list something they are grateful for each day. I’m not sure I’ll have the time to do that every night, so I might end up listing things in batches every couple days, with hopefully 30 at the end of the month. I imagine once I hit half way through the month, some of these might get interesting. I’ll probably post it to my Facebook at the end of the November or at the start of December. So if you’re here early–hi. There might be typos, spelling and grammar mistakes. I'm not doing a deep clean on this, so please excuse the mess. (Also, another blog post is coming soon. I like it, I'm just worried I'm repeating stuff I've already said in other blogs, so I need to go back and compare them to the new one. )

1. The Gym

It's more or less my sanctuary. It keeps me sane and is what usually my daily routine hinges on. Lately, I’ve been struggling getting there as early as I’d like to, but I’m inching my way back towards the earlier morning. Even then, it makes my mood better, my day better, my confidence higher, and helps me just overall feel better. I've also started a new workout program I'm excited about. I was in a bit of a rut of doing the same thing every week and I was well past bored because of it. So, yay for new programs, too!

2. Social Media

I know a lot of people hate it, but let me keep my vice, please. It still serves me, and when it stops, then I’ll stop. My socials are my little fishbowl (and to be clear, I’m aware I’m usually the fish). I like seeing people I know on the platforms. It helps me feel a little bit connected. I don’t consider it a time waster when I think that if I didn’t have it, I likely wouldn’t have any idea of what is going on in other’s lives. I don’t really drink or do gummies, or much of anything else in terms of vices. Unless swearing is a vice, and then I guess I have two. But if social media is my vice, then it’s my vice. Anyone who wants to take it from me will have to fight me over it like a rabid raccoon. It normally doesn’t make me sad. It helps me find local events or groups. It reminds me I do actually know people. And I need that.

3. Animals/Pets

I love animals. I always have. They’re pure in a way that humans aren’t. They communicate clearly, if you understand their body language. I usually like animals more than people. They don’t have an agenda. They either like you, or they don’t. There’s not much confusion there, and there's safety in that. I think they’re more emotionally complex than a lot of people give them credit for. I could talk a lot about this one, but I'm trying to keep these short. So I'll share this instead:

I love Jane Goodall. I feel like she sums up a of how I feel when during a speech she shared how other scientists said, "Jane, you shouldn't have given these chimpanzees names. They're your subjects; they should have numbers. Jane, you cannot talk about animals having personalities, minds, and emotions. Those are unique to us. You can't have empathy with your subjects. To be a good scientist, you've got to be objective and to be objective, you can't have empathy."

She went on to say, "Well, I had a great teacher when I was child. A teacher who had already taught me that what these professors were saying was absolute rubbish. That teacher, many of you have had, was my dog Rusty. And whether you've had a dog, a cat, a guinea pig, a rabbit, a parrot, or what it is, you know perfectly well that we are not the only beings on the planet with personalities, minds, and emotions. And gradually, science came to accept that we are part of, ad not separate from, the rest of the animal kingdom."

4. Aging

Because so many don’t get to.

I’m all for aging as well as you can and as best as you can. I had micro needling done this year. I take supplements and workout. My skin care routine is truly ridiculous. I have no shame in admitting that I'm a vain little creature, but I also don’t fear getting older. I’d just like to do it as well as I can. But I hope I don’t mourn getting wrinkles or grey hair (yes, I've already found one), because living is an adventure and years are milestones some people don’t ever reach, so I’m grateful that I’m alive.

And just to lean in with the corniness of it, I think aging is kind of like books. At the end, I hope I'm more like a battered copy with creases and a worn out cover, than one that never was once opened. It's sad when I see a book is never read, or someone doesn't get to finish. I’ll gladly welcome the inevitable signs of age so long as I’m still around to keep living and doing what I love to do. And I hope I have a lot of chapters left to go.

5. Going Back to School

I'm glad I'm taking classes again. I haven't yet applied for the masters program for psychology yet because I'm trying to pad my transcript a little more before doing so. It's overwhelming to feel like I'm a decade behind everyone else, and that's a type of difficult that's hard to talk about. But I try and focus on the positives, like how my time not working wasn't wasted. I learned a lot during those years, but that doesn't make trying to figure out my life now any easier.

Going back to school and taking classes has been different from the first time around. For starters, I have multiple things motivating me this time, so my drive to do well is much, much higher. It's also been incredibly satisfying to feel like the work is paying off. I got a 98 on a research paper I wrote. I don't think I ever got a grade on any paper, let alone a major paper for a class, with a grade that high. So far, my test results have been high as well. I'm a little shocked by my overall grade in the class. It's helping build my confidence that I can do this.

The plan so far is to get the credits and then apply for a graduate program, but even if that plan changes, it won't be for nothing. I at least have something I can add to a resume because of this class and future ones. Either way, going back was a good decision, and I'm grateful I made it.