Within the last year I have personally undergone immense change in my life. A year ago today I was a competitive athlete that trained 6 days a week and went to a school at the other side of the city with a mere 160 kids in grades 9-12. Now I am no longer an athlete of any kind, I attend school close to home with about 1300 other students and have spent a lot of time doing quite frankly, nothing. I continue telling myself that change is okay and that at one point or another it should happen but it seems to have taken a tole on my quality of life. Some days I truly wish my life was life the way it was year ago. Even so, I have come up with ways to embrace and deal with change…
The three mandatory steps when dealing with change:
1 – Cry it out: Resent the world a little bit. It is okay to be angry with change whether it was intentional or unplanned. Sometimes these things hit us by surprise and it is necessary to let out some anger and sadness. Grieve the you, you used to be!
2 – Celebrate and treat yo self: It is a huge milestone in your life when you reach a time of change, celebrate what you’ve gone through because every second was worth something.
3 – Embrace new opportunities: One thing I had an abundance of when I left my sport was time. I had all this time after school that I had never had before and was now able to fill with things I wanted to do but never had the chance. Start a blog, bake a cake, volunteer as much as you can and even get a part time job. Everything that you do growing up is for experience and I know I gained a lot mentally and physically from being in a sport but now I have time to challenge myself in my writing and participate in my community.
Its all gonna be okay.
Xoxo, Sarah
