It still shocks me how few months ago we were all celebrating the arrival of a new year and wishing everyone good tidings in the new year. Goals were set and resolutions were made and it seemed like the middle of the year was still far away.
Image is mine
So far, the days have been running fast and time as usual waits for no man. It's April and it was only the beginning of April last week but now, April is well on its way and will soon give way for another month.
One of my resolutions this year was to take things easy and not stress unnecessarily, worry unnecessarily and panic unnecessarily. Those were the habits that I carried around with me, not voluntarily of course, but those habits did not help me at all last year. They only helped to sap my strength out, cause me stress and cause my health to decline, it was pretty rough.
One of the side effects of all that bad habit was burn out. I have experienced burnout in the past but this one was the longest and I knew that it was as a result of me doing too much last year, striving for grand things without paying attention to my health, physical and mental. Towards the end of the year, I got tired of everything and I needed to really rest in order to get my strength back so I took a break from school and all the other things that I was doing.
Taking that break proved to be the very thing that I needed because I was able to reconnect with myself, fight the burnout and actually write something in a consistent manner and I got to try out new things. I decided to explore the options that life has in store for me.
With that mindset, I decided to move into the new year with an open mind, open to trying new things and learning new things, prioritizing my health and putting myself and my mental health first and taking things as calmly as I can.
With that, I began 2025 on a clean slate not knowing that life had something else in store for me. Upon resuming school mid semester, I suddenly got appointed to a position that I wasn't prepared for and it felt as if they were waiting for me to resume so as to dump a load of responsibility on me when I have only just resolved not to take on more than I can carry and I was ready to go through with it.
I know that I wanted to try out new things but it didn't include taking on more political positions and I had already had my fill of those. Those positions do not give room for personal time and I never really had enough time to do the things I really wanted to do because I was juggling official duties with schoolwork and it just sapped all of my energy. As soon as the announcement was made, I requested to resign and my request for resignation wasn't met with smiles. They were not happy that I wanted to resign but I had to especially for my mental health and I wasn't ready to go through all the stressful things that I went through in the past year again.
It took a month before my resignation was accepted and another was appointed in my stead, the months of January and February were the craziest January and February that I have ever experienced and the experiences I had while holding that position for a short while only helped to validate my decision. I really couldn't do it again for another 365 days.
The month of March was reserved for examinations in my school and I barely had time for myself. The stress of the exams caused me to fall ill a couple of times and I really couldn't wait to be out of the school environment. Besides the school stress, I had fun too on some days. I started reading fiction again after a long reading slump and I had fun with friends.
The semester ended in the last week of March and I returned home. Days before I returned home, I had a slight illness which disappeared the moment I set foot in my house. I really did have to leave the school environment to get better.
So far, so good, my resolution to try out new things has been going great. I am branching out, trying to see what I am good at and what hidden talents I have and it has been fun learning more fun things about myself that I didn't even know were there.
The journey might be rough, but I am getting there.
I am looking forward to hitting more milestones in the next quarter.
