A lot of things have been happening lately. Lots of really great things that push me further and further toward a beautiful and bright future.
Not only that but they are things that made me feel hopeful, purpose driven, motivated, ambitious, independent, fearless, and happy.
Work has been so inspiring, busy, productive and I feel good helping lots and lots of high school students find their place in the world studying courses they have a passion for. Not only that but I also get to help ignite passion into people who thought their career dreams were over, but can now start planning toward being offered their dream university course.
I feel like this has always been my calling. Working with young and the old, helping inspire them to live their best life again, encouraging them, and just having that someone who believes they can do it on the other end of the telephone.
I’ve been very excited planning where this work could take me in future, maybe counselling or continuing the work I am doing but in a bigger way. Visiting schools, universities, doing marketing as well.
My work colleagues are like my second family too. I love each of them so much, and they are so positive and inspiring to come into work every day. I have never felt so at peace in my working life, knowing I am creating a stable future for myself but also helping create stable ones for others too.
I’ve also learnt there are different ways to give this month. You can give your time, your ear to listen, your voice to speak, your money etc.
I’ve been so blessed and I have wanted to give to others what I have been given.
Just the other day after I finished work, I saw a man looking for food in bins. A lot of thoughts went through my head. Thoughts like ‘Why is he homeless when it’s a first world country’. But then a voice said ‘Give what you have’
I looked into my wallet and saw five dollars. It wasn’t much, and I was scared at first to give it to him. Worried he would be offended. But the voice spoke clearly, Give him your five dollars.
So I walked up to him ‘Excuse me Sir, here is five dollars if you like.’ He didn’t say anything, he just looked at the money, then at me and smiled.
I just wanted him to eat that night. I wanted him to have something fresh and tasty. I hated the thought that I was about to head home and eat a nutritious dinner, while he was scrambling to find scraps in the bins.
Too often we overthink situations. Our gut instinct is to help others, but we hold ourselves back from helping because society has taught us to.
My friend is going through a hard time with depression at the moment. Being someone who has gone through it at different stages of my life, I know how difficult and lonely the pain is. When it is absent from your life, you can’t imagine feeling that kind of pain again. But when you have it, it feels like it’s all you will ever feel again.
I couldn’t give him instant happiness, but I could give him my time and an ear to listen to him pour out his heart to me. The enemy tries to tell you ‘What can you do to help? You only make things worse’.
For a second I gave into these thoughts. I wondered if my good fortune was making him feel worse about himself. But then I shook myself out of it. It’s not wrong to feel happy if you do. You don’t have to feel the same pain others do to help them, you just have to be there.
I told him I have been where he is. I told him it gets better with time.
Depression gets a bad stigma. No one wants to feel sad, it’s a very uncomfortable emotion to wade through, but it is necessary. I am reading M.Scott Peck’s book ‘The Road Less Travelled’. It talks about depression being a necessity in life at certain points where it forces you to grow and to change. Without feelings of sadness and grief, we would continue making the wrong choices, because we have no emotional consequence.
It’s like being told you shouldn’t touch that hot stove or it will burn your hand. But you touch it anyway. Instantly your hand feels hot, and pain sears through your body. Your not going to touch that stove again are you? You learnt your lesson. But if you touched your hand to the stove and you didn’t feel any pain, you probably wouldn’t have a hand anymore.
It’s better to learn your lesson, and endure short term pain, rather than never learn your lessons and lose yourself completely.
Once we learn particular lessons we become wiser, we learn not to touch that hot stove in the first place, we learn to take precautions because we have been hurt before.
I’ve learnt a lot about this over the last few years. Learning to notice patterns of certain behaviour, or choices I make and learning to stop, re-evaluate and change direction. In turn this has made a happier me. Maybe it has something to do with my prefrontal cortex developing, or maybe it’s just life’s lessons.
It was our last Garden meeting Tuesday night for the year. We discussed all the amazing memories and people we have met. We talked about leaving a legacy, and the people who made an impact on our lives for good. We also discussed what we took from this year.
What I took from this year was:
- Tim Tam slams are amazing
- Working full-time doesn’t always mean boring and doesn’t always mean having no life.
- True friends are hard to come by, but so worth while when you do you find them
- Budgeting young will help in the long run
- It’s not bad to want good things in life for your self and your future
- Weights are heavy and your legs will hurt the next day. Rookie at gym still but I’m getting better.
This group of people from the state’s are so amazing and I am so excited for next year’s adventures with them already. Not only that but I’m excited where my relationship with God will take me too. I already want to challenge myself more next year, and let God guide me.
The only thing I need to work on now is slowing down and learning to take more time for myself instead of always going. I seem to find it hard to say no to my friends when they invite me out because I have FOMO (fear of missing out) but I am usually so exhausted after work and I know I need to relax, so I’m going to start listening and having some self control.
the anomaly daughter 