Hello everyone!
This week’s post is about finding hope and joy in whatever you can.
For me, there are little nuggets of joy I can find in the simplest things— looking up at the stars and moon, taking a walk through nature, talking about a linguistic topic, watching one of my favorite movies, etc.
I am not saying it’s easy to acknowledge these small moments of joy. I am still learning how to be present in the current moment and focus on things that bring me even a little bit of joy. But recognizing some of the things that have the possibility to bring me joy helps me to acknowledge them in the future when I’m experiencing them.
I want to talk about a dream I had the night of 2/10/24.
To give some context, I was in South Carolina for an Ultimate Frisbee tournament. Before I went to bed, I talked with a friend about a variety of things. They help remind me of the things that matter in life and help me see hope and joy in small moments. I think that conversation helped inspire my dream.
In my dream, a man gave me a riddle. He said, “make a living”, so I got a job and made a decent amount of money. Some time passed and the man appeared again. I asked him, “Why aren’t they happy with how things are going for me? Your riddle was about making money and I’m making money.” I don’t know who exactly ‘they’ are, but in my dream, it felt like I was referring to my friends and family. The man looked at me and all he said was, “no.” Confused, I stood there for a moment, before realizing. I responded, “you meant make a life, not make money.” The man nodded and replied, “go tell them”. Then I woke up.
This weird yet profound dream helped put some things into perspective. We all need to focus on finding joy in life, and that looks different for all of us. For me, right now, that means finding moments of connection with people and continuing my studies in linguistics. I’ve had impulsive thoughts of “what if I just drop out of college,” thinking that I’ll never get to where I want to be. But this mindset doesn’t help me. I’m not saying I’ll never have those thoughts again or that someone’s wrong for having negative thoughts— but from what I’ve learned, you can’t wallow in it for too long or it’ll just drag you down.
Keep fighting, keep trying, keep finding nuggets of hope and joy.
Truly, thank y’all for being here.
AQ