The Thankful List

I know that might be an obvious title but I feel as though people forget that sometimes, I know I do. I feel like we are taught to bottle our feelings up, to keep them to ourselves and deal with them alone whether they are good or bad. This bottling up of feelings can cause us to feel overwhelmed and heavy with them. It’s good every now and then to talk to someone about it or write it down. I think feelings are meant to be shared. They way people feel about each other and situations is meant to be shared. Feelings are common thread through all of us no matter how tough we try to be. So, every so often share them, let it out. 

As a soon to be college grad I can tell you one thing that has been haunting my dreams since August, change. The unknown has always had a profound grip on my nerves. I don’t like it but as I have gotten older, I have tried to accept it to the best of my ability. 

It’s interesting how four years ago I planned a little life out for myself about how things would go and where I would be in four years. Standing at the end of my college career four years later, it is very different from where I thought I’d be. Some of my plans didn’t work out, some I am still trying to attain, and others (the glorious few) have far exceeded my expectations of what I thought I could accomplish.

As of now, I am not sure what the future holds, I still have my big goals of what I need to do and where I would like to be. It’s just going to be hard to leave Virginia Tech and the comfort of going to classes, sorority meetings, and being surrounded by mountains and Hokie stone. It’s hard to settle with the fact that this time next year I will not be sitting in the Biology Building stressing over classes. It’s even harder to settle with the fact that I have no idea what I will be doing this time next year. 

But even though I have these feelings I have to look forward to the future, I have to look change in the eye and say “okay what’s coming next.” Because we can’t just sit around and lament on the past, we can’t become trapped in wishing we could go back in time and do it all over again. We have to look for the future and see what’s in store for us there, because that is where we all are headed, ready or not. 

You cannot keep making yourself upset or angry about things that have happened in the past. It is so tempting to revisit old hurt feelings but this doesn’t help soothe the past, it only hurts the present. It brings things up that were supposed to be laid to rest, forgiven, and forgotten. People change, people grow. You have grown yourself. Therefore, stop reverting back to and thinking of your past self and past situations. Don’t ruin the future with things from the past. Recognize that they have happened and move on.