Remember this post from earlier this year where I said that I wanted to try out a different writing prompt every week? Or this post where I said I was trying to be more creative in my journal writing? Well, I can confidently say that I’ve been failing miserably at both. It’s good to be confident in life, isn’t it? Anyway, I figure that with all the extra time on my hands at work, I have no excuse not to be writing more. So, because I seem to have taken a semi-permanent detour from writing things down in my pen-and-paper journal (I still haven’t finished my attempts at capturing all the moments of our wedding day mentioned here), I have decided to just combine all of my meager attempts at writing anything into just one weekly (or semi-weekly) post here on the blog.
Today I started easy: I went to the site www.journalingprompts.com and ran my mouse over the little writing prompt stars to find one that didn’t seem too daunting or too boring or too awkward. I finally decided on this one:
“What 3 Things Would You Change About Your Life Right Now and Why?”
Well, here goes nothing.
#1: Even though this is technically not a thing in my life, it affects me plenty, which is why #1 was so easy to come up with: I would change Matt’s work schedule to match mine so we could actually see each other during the week. Last night, he got home much earlier than normal (7:30), so I ditched out on yoga and spent the evening with him, eating BBQ chicken pizza and fresh watermelon and watching re-runs of The Big Bang Theory. I can’t believe how much I took for granted little moments like that that happened all the time before, when we had (it seemed) all the time in the world to spend together. So maybe that’s the real thing I’d change, since I have control over it–not taking the time we do have together for granted.
#2: I feel like the 1/3 of my life that isn’t taken up by work and sleep is often ill-spent–even though I love my ANTM and So You Think You Can Dance, a deeper (and wiser) part of me wants to do more than just sleep, work, go to the gym, veg, then sleep again. There are hundreds of books in the house to read! There is violin technique to be perfected! There are new recipes to try! There are nature walks waiting to be had! So, in a nutshell, I’d basically change my summer tendency toward laziness and use those quiet moments home alone for more productive purposes.
#3: I would find a way for us to not wait until we’re retired to travel. And I don’t just mean the little trips (like camping) that I know we’ll take regardless of how poor we are (although those trips are great, too!). But I want to really see the world–or at least see as much of it as I can. The photo at the top was taken by yours truly on my trip to Venice in 2005 (well, the trip was to Europe in general, and this pic just happens to be of Venice). From the moment I took my first independent trip to Florida when I was 15 (by independent, I mean that I paid for it and had some say in the planning), I was overcome by this passionate desire to see every nook and cranny I could of every country on the globe–and now I want Matt to see it all with me. I know we can make this dream a reality if I can learn to overcome my impulses to buy things I want now (like clothes) and instead favor those impulses that tell me to save. A tough feat, but not impossible. Although, before any traveling, I want to take a photography class and buy a nice camera, so I guess that that is what I’d have to change first. Hmmm…