The Person You Want to Be

Hello, everyone! Happy, happy Tuesday. I hope you all had a brilliant day; welcome back to The Avocado and Me. Thanks so much for tuning in! School is back in full swing, which means (you guessed it!) homework, homework, homework. It also means significantly less time for relaxation, the pursuit of my personal goals, and Doctor Who. But you know what? That is perfectly okay. All good things must come to an end, and winter break is no exception.

Now, I have a seemingly strange request for you all. Please close your eyes. Notice the points of tension in your body; are your shoulders tight? Let them relax, and allow them to fall away from your ears. Are your eyes clenched? Make a conscious effort to slacken the muscles your face. Breathe in. Breathe out. Relax. Next, I'd like you to ponder who you are at this very moment. Attempt to do so without judgment, and perhaps try starting off simply - just consider who you were today. What did you do between dawn and dusk? Did you stay within your comfort zone, or toe the line between familiarity and new experiences? And what did you say? Anything you regret? How about something that brought a smile to someone's face? Who did you talk to? If you feel ready to do so, allow your head space to wander to a greater scale. Explore aspects of your identity. What in this life brings you joy? Who do you love, and who has hurt you? Think about your fears. Provide yourself with a safe space to feel. Truly feel. Notice the sensation of the air rushing in and out of your lungs. Notice any emotions. Where do you feel them? Perhaps in your chest, throat, head, or pit of your stomach? For just a few more moments, merely be. Breathe in. Breathe out. Contemplate who you are. Begin again.

Open your eyes. At the beginning of this exercise, I challenged you to explore your identity, what makes you, you, without judgment. But I bet this was hard. Maybe you were made more aware of parts of your physical body that you do not like. Are you insecure about your height? Your shape? Or perhaps you felt uncomfortable with some of the thoughts in your head. If you're like me, there is likely an element of your personality or mind that you are not proud of. Self-love is a real challenge. Self-confidence is never absolute. Thus, reviewing yourself without judgment is equally as difficult.

Again, I am going to ask you to please close your eyes. Picture yourself, as though you are observing your physical body in third person at a coffee shop. Imagine watching yourself smile, or light up with excitement. Think about not who you are, but who you want to be. Consider all of your hopes and dreams, the people you want to be closer to, the emotions you want to feel, the successes you crave, and pour them all into this mental rendering of yourself. Watch as you grow. Muse over what you could be. Dream, just for a moment. Picture the outwardly impossible. You want to be the next astronaut on the moon? Awesome! Pretend you've been there. Pretend that the you you are observing in that coffee shop has touched moon dust, seen the stars in all of their glory, and has hundreds and hundreds of stories to tell. Embrace your potential.

It's a happy thought, isn't it? Achieving everything you could possibly hope to achieve. Loving who you want to love, and being loved in return. Being who you want to be. But I have a little secret for you. This image you conjured of yourself? The you who has seen the highest mountains, swam in the oceans, laughed, and lived?

That version on you is entirely possible. 

According to www.ssa.gov, the average person lives to be between 84.3 and 86.7 years of age. That is over 30,660 days. 735,840 hours. 2.649024e+9 seconds. It seems like a lot of time, huh? Well, that's because, relatively, it is. It is certainly plenty of time for you to create the person you want to be. Every nanosecond of every second of every minute of every hour of every day is at your command. You control not all, but so much, of your life. You pen your own tale.

I suppose today's take away is that it is crucial for you to appreciate who you are. To understand that right now, at this time, on this day, which will never, ever happen again, you are enough. The way you look is perfect. Your thoughts and emotions are valid. You are smart enough, you are strong enough, you are brave enough. One day, you'll look back on pictures you took today, messages you sent, or things you wrote. You'll smile. You'll wish you had loved yourself, had known as much then as you do now. Simultaneously, it is vital that you never stop believing in who you want to be. That dream is feasible. You can totally get a 5 on your AP test. You can make the team, publish that book, sing that song. It is never, ever too late to turn your life around. The person you see when you close your eyes, the one with a wide smile and stories to tell, is real. That image is just as much of you as the physical you, right here, right now. The version of yourself you see in 20 years is the same person you are today. One and the same. Past, present, and future, merged.

Disney movies can be simplistic and cheesy at times, and yet we love them unconditionally. Why? Because dreams can come true. Because there is magic in the unexpected. Extraordinary in the ordinary. So, dear reader, appreciate yourself as you are, but never give up on who you might be. You can do it. I believe in you.

With love,
Maya


Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash, Photo by Mark Harpur on Unsplash,
Photo by Benjamin Sow on Unsplash, Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash,
Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash