The last few months have been constant stress. It's so easy to get caught up in daily life and forget about the big picture. Or, if you're like me (and probably the rest of the world's college students), almost everything you do is done for the future. I keep forgetting that I actually have a life in the present - I rush from one class to the next, and I'm consumed with meeting one deadline just to turn around and be faced with another. I always feel like I lose myself during school months; I don't have time to focus on making myself happy (although I somehow managed to do plenty of that during first semester) and I slowly get less and less happy. 

     I realize that I will always have to do things in life that I don't like, and that I'll always be prioritizing school or work over other aspects of my life. But that doesn't mean I can't still maintain that part of myself. Life can always be worse, and I by no means have it rough. Now I just need to get over the fact that things will work out how they're supposed to no matter what, and let go a little bit. Hah, if only I could figure out how to do that. 

Happiness Project Update

     School started today! I can't really say that I was excited but I also only had one class, so I can't complain too much. A few weeks ago I posted about my happiness project (here and here), and so I'm just now finally posting a few of my goals for this month. And the theme for this month is...

September: Que será, será (Whatever will be, will be)

1. Let things go. Especially people who contribute nothing to my life and who only bring me down. Whatever happens is meant to happen - there are only so many things that I can control in life, so I might as well just get used to accepting it.
2. Make more effort (in comparison to last year) to see my friends and keep in contact with them because they have been nothing short of amazing to me when I needed them the most.
3. Try new things. I'm going to try sailing (!!! so excited!) and possibly run 5k for charity. I'm really hesitating on the 5k haha, but it would be so good for me to try something that puts me out of my comfort zone. 


     Right now I'm just going to focus on those goals - I have this huge fear of taking on too many things in addition to school and not being able to follow through on anything. On another note, I have met some of the most interesting and great people in the last week. One person in particular really put things into perspective for me and it really made me believe that everyone you come across is meant to be in your life for some reason or another. 


     Lastly, I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has been reading tinsel* for the last few months and I'll just leave you with a few of my favorite photos lately:

{all images via tumblr!}

Happiness Project: Personal Commandments

     Happy Thursday! I'm all moved in at school, enjoying Ann Arbor, and still not looking forward to classes, hah. But I'm sure I'm not alone in that last one. I should be back to posting everyday now (!!!), so I'm just hoping that school doesn't interfere too much. Anyways, I've been thinking about The Happiness Project (as mentioned here) and I came up with ten things, or "commandments," that I feel are important to live by for my life:

1. Be Jill
2. Take it one day at a time - A lot of times I get really caught up in planning for the future and I end up forgetting to enjoy the present
3. Accept what I'm feeling - I recently took a yoga class, and the instructor made a comment about how it's easier to deal with problems in life if you feel your emotions while they're occurring, rather than trying to push them out of your mind or cling to them
4. Be independent - I used to have a problem with being alone, and sometimes I still feel weird just sitting by myself, hah, but I'm learning and I've come a long way
5. Keep an open heart - stay open-minded!
6. Cut myself some slack - I've been going through a HUGE transition period and I can't be perfect or hold it together all of the time
7. Do what I love
8. Remember that life is short - have some fun :)
9. Don't take things personally - chances are that people act the way they do because they are dealing with things in their own life, not because they want to take it out on you. Some people are just unhappy due to their own decisions...
10. Embrace change

Happiness Project

     A while back I talked about some things I'd be writing about, one of which was my own version of a  happiness project. When I was traveling to New York, I started reading Gretchen Rubin's book, The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun. My mom had bought it a while back and after hearing about it, I figured I'd give it a try. (Side note: Since I was about 11 or 12 I have always liked to make goals/lists/etc. and the charts and lists in Gretchen's project immediately made me want to read it). ANYWAYS, I like the concept. Basically she comes up with 11 categories that she wants to improve/appreciate/alter in her life and works on one each month for January-November. In December she tries to tackle them all. Each category has 4-5 goals that she works on each month. It's all very systematic and organized; therefore, I love it, hah. I'm still reading the book and I'm into her ninth month. But the whole thing got me thinking about how beneficial it would be for me to have my own happiness project, only catered to my liking.
     This doesn't mean that I'm unhappy - to be honest, it's quite the opposite. But I plan on making this school year a million times better than the last. If it ends up not helping me, then I won't continue with it. But I figure it's worth a shot, and maybe I'll learn a few things about myself along the way. I plan on starting mine with September, I'm going more with the school year than the calendar year. I haven't exactly started yet, I've just been thinking of ideas...Check out Gretchen's blog for more information and I'll be posting more about my project once I sit down and figure out exactly what my goals are going to be!

"To change one’s life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. No exceptions."

via

     In the past, writing a post like this was a little more personal than I wanted to go, but lately I've been thinking about a lot of things and I might as well just go for it. Long story short: For the first 6 months, 2010 was not my year. I had my share of setbacks and struggles. But I decided that it's no one else's job to make me happy besides my own, so I better get working. As Mary Wilder once said, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" 

    Things have changed for me, and that's okay. I'm not the same person that I was last year, last month, or last week even. But I'm alright with that. I'm young, I'm free and I'm learning who I am. If I don't have fun and experience new things now then I'll make excuses and never get around to it. I guess the point of this post is that I'm working on my own happiness and even if this affects no one besides myself, it made me happier so that's all that matters. 

Things that have made me happy:


Yoga. I've become nearly obsessed with it and it's all I think about all day. I've never felt as healthy and as strong as I do right now. I wake up and I can't wait to go to class because I love how calm I feel when I leave. 

Riding my bike! One of the best purchases I've made in a while... Its so cathartic to just ride around for a while and feel like a kid again.

Being spontaneous. I've been trying to go with my gut feeling - it's incredibly hard at first. But then I say to myself, "If I want to go to ___ then just do it! You only have one life" or "Eat that fifth cookie! You've already had four, what is one more going to hurt?" Haha...but seriously, I just said that to myself yesterday.

Traveling. The highlight of my summer was visiting my friend, Jordan, in New York City. Since then I've been so happy.

Reading. I have a list a mile long of books I want to read and it's nice to finally start to make a dent in it, instead of reading textbooks every day. 

My wonderful friends. Thank you so much to everyone who has listened to me ramble, cry, and laugh. I owe you all and I appreciate you more than you know!

[subject quote by William James/all images via weheartit unless otherwise stated]