Five Lessons Learned and Five Favorite Things

Amelia Pontes, one of my favorite bloggers, does a weekly recap of her 5 lessons learned and 5 favorite things. I want to start doing this on a weekly basis because it offers a time for reflection.

Lessons Learned

1. Delaying the completion (or even the start) of a project because you are stressed, only leads to more stress. I’ve been suffering from this new-found knowledge for a few days now. Hopefully the tide will change.

2. Always try to push yourself for personal growth, even when it’s not expected. I’m currently in an expository writing class that does not have very high expectations. Week after week I am paired with other students who are writing the minimum to get by, forcing out dull essays about how “reading is important” (because nobody knew, right?). I want to tell them to make the most of this writing opportunity. Push yourself to try new genres, push yourself to learn new information that can be tailored to your interests.

3. Take opportunities to learn more about your loved ones (even the ones you see every day). My father and I have a good relationship. We get along well, and he lets me know how much he’s proud of me, but I began realizing that I don’t know a lot about his life prior to its current state. I’ve taken the time to sit down with him and ask personal questions (though it was awkward at first). It has opened me up to such wonderful stories about his past. He’s talked about his journey of emigrating to the U.S. from Sicily, and he’s told me about how he became a U.S. citizen. It’s been such a wonderful experience getting to know him in this different light. We share the stories between us, and I can begin to see the echoes of his values/roots/up-bringing in my own life.

4. A laugh with your mother can soon feel like a laugh shared between the closest friends. I moved home after finishing my undergraduate degree, and I am currently living at home while I complete my master’s. It was a hard transition-going from living with your peers to being back with your parents. However, I’ve found that my mother and I have both changed over the past 4 years. It’s like I’m rediscovering my mother, and she gets to do the same with me as an adult.

5. Blog because you want to. I can’t tell you the number of blogs I have begun and subsequently forgotten in the past 8 years. My constant worry about whether my readers will like me has prevented me from exposing my writing to others. But I have come to a point where I just like blogging. Blogs have let me in on conversations that I would never hear otherwise. I’ve read voices that I would never have been exposed to. Let yourself be part of the blogging world if you want to. So what if you have no readers; you are accomplishing something for yourself.

1. “Brand New Key“
Thank you, HP commercial. You have officially made me addicted to this song. P.S. How many girls in my generation even understand the roller skates/key thing?

2. Finishing a story
My mother writes fiction. She has written and published many short stories and books. Me? Well I can’t ever finish a creative story. I’ve taken a creative writing class, started numerous amounts of stories- all of which are never finished. I finally had a break through this past week and finished my first creative short story. It’s based on my time as a photography technician, and the many characters and situations the film reveals to the worker. Maybe one day I will post it for you.

3. Coke float. Oh man, I had my first one this weekend thanks to Cookout. De-lic-ious.

4. My goofy youngest cousin. For so long, the poor boy has been so socially awkward. He’s 15 years old, and always playing catch-up to his older cousins. But this week he is one of my favorites. He is one of my favorites because of the way he is able to be proud of his achievements (others at his school knock him down a lot). He is one of my favorites because he isn’t afraid to try writing (I definitely was!). He is one of my favorites because he always wants to share the excitement of his life with me.

5. Positive feedback (especially on something you were worried about). I recently completed an editing project in my technical writing course. I felt out of my league. I wasn’t sure if I should trust my intuition. Turns out that my professor thought that I was an excellent editor, and is now adding me on a list of contacts. Hmm, maybe there is a career out there for me that will be OUTSIDE of the classroom.

What are your lessons learned and favorites?