There is Only One Life to Live

People dread Mondays because it is the start of a new week, it is the end of the weekend, you have to go back to work and/or school, usually people start a new diet or exercise plan on this day, and overall you are just back to the reality of the "daily routine." On a typical week, I tend to be busy every day from the moment I wake up, until the moment I get the chance to finally pass out in my bed. Just to highlight my typical week: I open on Monday from 11-5 PM and then I have class until 9 PM followed by homework until I fall asleep. On Tuesday, I have my internship from 7 AM until 2 PM followed by after school tutoring from 2-4 PM and finally work from 5 until 1 AM! On Wednesday I may have off from work but usually I end up there anyways to decorate cakes. Or I volunteer for my field experience hours and I always have homework to do. Every other week at 5 PM I have a meeting for my Educators Honors society followed by another class until 9 PM. Thursday is usually similar to Tuesday and Friday I work a double from 11 AM until 1 AM and Sunday I work as well. Usually, I manage to get Saturday off (but sometimes it ends up being Sunday). No matter which day it is, I try so hard to make sure that I do something fun! As you can see, my weeks are long and stressful and very busy. I don't even have time to do everything that I need to do and want to do. Such as working out and doing laundry, etc. But, that one day over the weekend, where I could just do homework and clean and do all that adult stuff that I should do, I almost never do it on my weekend day off. I am 21 years old. I don't drink or party or anything like that. I have been living on my own for almost two years and I just work and go to school. Once in a while I would do something with friends but it got to the point where I realized I wasn't having any fun. I just kept working more and my schedule kept getting busier and that's when I decided I needed to have one day for myself every week. Even if it is as simple as going to see a movie or even just having dinner with a friend, I make it something to look forward to. One of my friends, who is very busy like I am, asked me the other day about all this. I told him, how I do something fun one day a week almost every week. He didn't believe me. Knowing how busy I am, he couldn't believe that I could make time for such fun. That's when I took out my handy planner and backtracked on the weeks. Some of the things I have done included going to Busch Gardens, going to a Latin Dance social at UCF, going to a Break Dancing competition Downtown to support a friend who was competing, visiting home for one weekend after not having time to for over two months, The Central Florida Fair, the movies, mini golfing, and just yesterday I went to New Smyrna Beach with some great people! Also, every 3 weeks I have been getting my nails done. You may think that I should be saving money and not going out that much, but for me, I think it is important to live a little bit. At least once a week, you should try to do something fun, something that lets you not think about work or school or any other stresses in your life. I love saving money and I constantly worry about having enough money but I also realize that I don't want to be old and have saved a lot of money but missed out on a countless number of memories and experiences. I work way too hard to not allow myself some spending money. Of course, if I got to a week where I needed the extra study time or the extra time for cleaning or something productive, I will not go out and play. Obviously I have my priorities in order. I just feel like life is so short. growing up goes by so fast and everyone is always in a hurry. If I didn't get that one day to look forward to it would make the week that much worst. In my Monday class, my professor always starts the class off with us sharing "Sparks." This is just something that you are looking forward to that is going to get you through the week. Although some weeks seem more stressful then others, it really is important to have that "spark" that is going to get you through it. Even just having a morning where you get to sleep in. That is certainly something that can get you through the week if you want it badly enough. I just thought I'd share with you guys my ideas about all this. My Great-Grandma always told me, "Life is Short, Eat Dessert First." You never know what is going to happen tomorrow so you really should try to live each day or at least each week to the fullest. I look back and know that I have already missed out on a lot of things because I am goal orientated and wanted to let nothing get in the way of them. I have no regrets because I know you can't change the past, however, I am still on this journey to a happy and positive life and I know that I am, at the least, making the effort to change. You aren't going to remember the day that you worked a 14 hour shift and had to go home and write a paper afterwards. You are going to remember the happy moments and the fun memories that you make. That's why I realized that it is so important. I am finally at a point where I realize that I have a lot of people in my life that care about me. I actually have quite a few friends, more then I ever had before. It makes me so happy because friendship is something that means so much to me,yet, I always had such a struggle growing up with hanging on to the people that I formed relationships with. So if you get anything from this post, please remember that it is important to make time for yourself, time for things that are going to make you happy. Maybe you can't do it once a week but at the absolute least, once a month. It will make you feel better every day when you know you have something to look forward to. Thank you for reading this and please feel free to comment with some of your most recent happy moments or memories or even something that I coming up soon.

                                    Just in case no one has told you yet today, you are beautiful!

Love, Lex ♥