As human beings, one thing that we must keep doing is move forward. If you know my story for the past two years, or so, you know that life was hard. It started with leaving a job that I really enjoyed because I thought I was ready for the next step. I don’t think that was the wrong decision. The place I eventually wounded up at wasn’t the best place for me. That change ended up into making three more moves within the last two years because of different reasons I don’t care to divulge.

By the end of March, my dad passed away from lung cancer. He never smoked a cigarette. I think about him now because his birthday was just a week ago. I didn’t know the last time I would say happy birthday would be last year.

Life has its hardships. With all that happened in the past two years, I don’t think I would have it any other way. Why would I say that? Growth comes through discomfort. The hard times in our lives comes with lessons that I would have never learned without the hardship. I’m stronger 2 years later.

The pandemic era of life has just been difficult on everyone. I’m very happy that mental health has been placed in forefront with more people aware of how life cannot just heart us physically, but mentally. For those who’ve made it out of this period with a new perspective, I’m proud of you. The depression and loneliness of isolation could have taken you down, but you’re still here. I think it’s important that we keep moving forward, even when we have setbacks. Even if those steps are baby steps.

Everything is Not Perfect

One thing I really feel we need to come to grips with is knowing that everything is not perfect. At times things aren’t okay and that’s okay. It’s very strange to me when something bad happens and the response is, “How could it have happened to me?” Why not you? What makes you special to make you believe that you are not going to face hardships? In other cases, we numb ourselves from the pain. We work a job that we hate and go home to drown it out with television and a brew.

Find a Creative Outlet

One of the best things I did during the pandemic was read a book entitled The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It was a book that allowed me to find consistency in my creative work. One of the things that I still do to this day is my journal practice. I write a page full of my thoughts every day. I feel like I’ve been doing it consistently for more than a year now. It’s a place to take the painful emotions that have and job them down on paper. That was also the start to two music projects and staying consistent with this blog. Creativity is an emotional regulator. Even on good days, I’m glad that I have writing and music to express myself.

Not Everyone is for You

Part of my disappointment with the last couple years is thinking that there would be people who would be in my corner, especially when going through what I was going through. I was expecting sympathy, and it never came. In most cases, people kept their distance. Most didn’t want to hear my issues. I realized that my social media likes dwindled when I talked about something real. If I posted a smile, the likes trended back up. I had to move forward regardless.

Maybe relationships are like seasons. Maybe there are some who only want to play when it’s sunny outside, but are nowhere to be found when we see some rain. Relationships are fluid and will change with every circumstance. If we lose a friend when we’re going through grief, it might just add more to it. It shouldn’t bring us down completely. I shouldn’t expect anything from others, but appreciate the ones who stayed down.

It Not Be Okay Now, But It Will Be Okay Later

Hope is what keeps us moving. I wrote a post about toxic positivity, and I don’t believe you should pander positivity towards people who aren’t feeling it. I don’t think it’s okay to tell people how they should feel. One thing we can do is offer hope. Show them that it will be better and better can be reached on their own time. People need the opportunity to feel what they are feeling. They shouldn’t suppress it. It’s a process. A process worth fully going through.