Hello, dear readers, and Ms. Disa, welcome back to another blog! The sun is smiling, the birds are chirping, and yet somehow, I still feel the dread of school. I looked at my calendar recently and thought, "Oh my gosh, it’s actually just the third week of school!" Frankly, I am not feeling the enjoyment of senior year. A lot of people tell me that your last year of high school is going to be the most important one and the one where you make the most memories. However, I’m wondering how I’m expected to make these memories if all I have to do, or all I can do.. is study for my final exams.
It’s been one crazy week. Along with the upcoming holidays, I’m actually a little worried because all the teachers decided to schedule quizzes for right after the break ends. I totally understand, because they have no other time to fit them in. But I think my mind could use a little rest sometimes. I guess it’s just a little hard for people who take the long way home and arrive later, where the time they have to actually enjoy themselves is much less than for someone who lives near the school. Although I know everyone’s lives are different and they have their own struggles, this is something that constantly wrecks my brain every day.
Interestingly enough, during our discussion time in AEP, we talked about mental wellness. We were all given an article to read, and it really caught my attention because, while it repeated a lot of the same points, it also tackled different aspects of mental wellness and how a person can become mentally well. One section of the article talked about gratitude, and that’s something a lot of us fail to remember. Or rather, I should say, something I forget to remember many times. It really struck me because it’s different when you talk about gratitude in a school setting rather than being lectured by your parents. It doesn’t feel the same way; it feels as if it’s something that has to be memorized rather than something that goes in one ear and out the other.
I mentioned this in class, but one of the most important things the article highlighted was the idea of having a "gratitude conversation." You might be wondering, "What is a gratitude conversation?" Well, it’s basically a conversation you have with someone where you only talk about things you’re grateful for. This conversation is solely focused on expressing gratitude, and you never bring up problems. Sometimes it feels good to share problems with friends, but in the end, it only provides temporary comfort rather than solving the actual problem.
Most of the time, friends can’t be our problem-solvers; we have to solve them ourselves. So, having this gratitude conversation allows you to realize that there are actually so many things you should be grateful for. Since that class, I’ve been trying to mentally remind myself to have a gratitude conversation or to include some form of gratitude in my conversations with friends. I just go ahead and ask them, "What are some things that you’re thankful for or grateful for today?" They have to tell me, and I do the same for them. And I realize just how important it is because you don’t really notice these things unless you say them out loud in a situation where you know the other person is listening to you. At least, it was incredibly different for me.
That gratitude session really changed my perspective somehow. And although I’m always reading things about how important mental health is, I’m still beyond grateful for the reminder that my AEP class gave me, because without it, I would be struggling twice as hard right now.
See you in the next one, dear readers!
*copying this off from my google docs.. need to fix that font size! hahaha
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