Last week was a rough week; probably the roughest one I’ve had this semester. Not rough because I wasn’t on top of things or work was overwhelming, but rough because I neglected myself. I’ve tried to stay on top of things this semester and I have achieved that for most of the part but in all that, I neglected my physical and mental health and forgot to prioritize my self above all else. I gave in to negative thoughts and I felt defeated then got angry at myself. I was angry for letting the world make me feel so weak and small and so I decided to go back to my 2018 mantra: Self love 2018 all the way. I got of all my social media in an attempt to just disengage and I can’t express how helpful this has been to me. I slowly regained myself and decided to get back on my fitness and it feels great to be in control of my life. That was a brief rundown of where I’ve been in the past two weeks and since yesterday was my birthday, I decided to do a post on some of the 20 things I’ve learnt this year. I did one of these last year and it was well received so I hope someone learns from my lessons this year with this post.

Here’s some of what Year 19 taught me:

1. Don’t let anyone waste your time: make it a requirement that the people who show up in your life have their intentions predetermined.
2. Reclaim yourself, reclaim power over your life and thoughts
3. Set your standards high, jus because you haven’t found what you’re looking for doesn’t mean that its okay to settle, DO NOT SETTLE IT’S A TRAP!!!!
4. Plug in to something, anything that makes you light up, invest your time in it, dwell in it, explore it!
5. If it doesn’t serve you, CUT IT!! If it doesn’t add any value to you CUT IT!!
6. Social media breaks are everything, just disengage for a second, spend the extra time reading a book or just listening to music or doing whatever it is that makes you calm
7. Do things that make you uncomfortable, at this point I think I just enjoy uncomfortable situations
8. stay curious
9. Find a mentor, someone who you think you want be or one that just possesses traits that you love to see in yourself
10. Keep your friends closer
11. Make you a better you: Focus on you and who you are, invest in yourself in whatever ways make you happy, for me, that new pair of ‘somethings’ makes me the happiest.
12. Network, network, network
13. Its not always work, work, work, never forget to have some fun too. Set some time apart for leisure it makes a huuuugggeeeee difference!
14. Surround yourself with people that challenge you
15. Always voice it, a concern, a worry, a compliment, anything….JUST VOICE IT!! I think I’ve come to appreciate the power of speech and expression a little more and even though I’m not the best at communication, I now fully get the value of just speaking up
16. Disturb yourself, I know this sounds like an African Parent expression but what this means to me is just being focused on finding what I really want to do with my life. I’ve tried, tested and learnt about a lot of careers and possible channels that I could go into and that has really helped other than waiting for answers.
17. Sometimes you just need to dance your worries away
18. That glass of wine on a Friday night is what got me through sometimes, don’t forget to sip on whatever makes that difference for you.
19. COFFEEEEEEEEEE
20. Love every single inch of you because if you don’t then who will?

I’m not a huge birthday fan, they feel weird to me. I feel like I’m not old enough to celebrate birthdays just yet but I still had a great one. I hope May treats you all right!!

Love, Imani.