[Reverb10] Appreciate & Friendship

(I am combining these two prompts into one post because finals have me falling behind on Reverb10.  I will obviously do the 5 minute prompt on its own.)

Victoria Klein asks: What’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?

Down-time. All my life, I’ve always kept going. School, work, family, extracurricular activities, friends – lather, rinse, repeat.

Who has time to relax and actually do something they enjoy versus something they need to do, all the time?  There are not enough hours in the day at times and even after I lost my job this past summer, I felt like I needed to be doing something constantly. Must network. Must apply to jobs. Must attend all events to make connections and just keep going.

I learned this year that taking a break is essential to moving forward.

So I learned to appreciate down-time.  Taking the time to eat breakfast in the morning. Taking the time to workout, read a book, walk around the city, just listen to music…

Very rarely do I get to relax without having a million things hanging over my head.

So I learned to appreciate and began to seek out down-time. Now, before I crash into bed, I take the time to read at least a chapter of a book that is NOT required by school.  It does wonders.

Martha Mihalick asks: How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst?

My friends that have been around for the best & the worst haven’t changed me this year.  They changed me years ago by humbling me and accepting me with love despite my flaws.  It’s the people who left my life this year for various reasons that changed me.  I was actually talking about this with my Dad and made the observation that some people just cannot be happy for you when you’re happy.  Some people feel that they have the right to be angry about the decisions you make in your life which do not harm them (or yourself).

Then I realized that I no longer feel the need to justify my decisions about my life to anyone. The old me would’ve tried to explain myself to a person who has talked about me behind my back extensively and has decided that the life I’m living is not worthy.

I then took a look around to the friends I have who love me unconditionally while being honest with me if they feel concern with a decision or the way my life is going.

That was the moment I changed my perspective on friendships.

It’s not how long someone has been in your life but why they stand beside you today that matters.