With 2020 behind us and the new year just beginning, Peer Advisor Megan shares what’s on her mind and how she’s starting fresh in 2021.
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I think it’s fair to say 2020 was not the year most people were hoping for. I had all these big plans, and nearly all of them were moved to the backburner or cancelled entirely. I completely understand that the difficulties we’ve been facing didn’t just go away when the clock struck midnight on New Year’s. However, I always feel like the new year is a natural turning point for me, and this new year I need it more than most. It’s a logical transition, I can let go of all the things that didn’t go according to plan last year and just start fresh. A blank slate. Here are a few things I’m doing to let go of 2020 and set myself up for success in 2021.
- I’m starting a new journal! If you’ve never journalled before, I highly recommend it. For about two years, I’ve simply been writing down things that happen and how I feel about them. It’s really useful for me to explain my thoughts and get them down on paper. My journal is not especially pretty or Instagram-worthy, but that’s not the point for me. If you want to keep a journal, you have to find a format that feels right for you, or else it won’t work. Mine is like a conversation with myself, and when things get difficult, I always come back to my journal. Needless to say, it got quite full last year. In 2021, I’m starting a new one, both a metaphorical and physical blank page to write the story of the new year. Whether you journal or not, if you have a planner or specific pens for your schoolwork or something like that, I think getting yourself new tools can help you feel like things are moving forward, even if we’ve been sort of stuck in a rut for the past year.
- I’m moving! Obviously, not everyone can just uproot their lives and move somewhere new. This step I’m taking took months of planning to make happen, and I’m not recommending you spontaneously move across the country. For me, it was important to create a new environment for myself, and the stars aligned for me to move in with a close friend who lives in Texas (yeehaw!). For others, this may mean painting your walls a different color, moving your furniture, or even just reorganizing your “school space” separate from your “personal space.” I spent a lot of 2020 feeling stagnant, so making obvious, visual changes to my life is important to me to jumpstart my personal growth again.
- I’m trying new things! When I was a freshman, some of the best advice I got was from one of my RAs. It was about this time of year, and I was explaining I didn’t feel like I’d found my “fit” yet at GW, the right people to hang out with or orgs to be involved in. She told me it was super normal to feel that way. There’s this expectation you’ll meet your best friends on the first day and you’ll be friends forever, but a lot of people she knew didn’t have that until second semester of freshman year, at least. And for me, she was completely right. I think that’s especially true for this year’s freshmen, I can’t imagine how hard it must be to try to find your “fit” at GW when you aren’t even physically at GW. So try new things, meet new people, join an org on GW Engage, attend virtual events, but most importantly, give yourself time to do all those things. That’s the other best advice I got as a freshman: no one actually knows what they’re doing, especially in D.C. So don’t worry, there’s no pressure to have it all figured out instantaneously, particularly in a pandemic.
- Most importantly, don’t hold 2020 against yourself. The things that went wrong for me last year weren’t my fault. My expectations for myself have always been my greatest enemy, often more than the expectations of others. I compare reality to the idea in my head of how things were “supposed” to be. But my “failure” to meet my own expectations isn’t a failure of my character, it was out of my hands. 2019 was really good for me, and I came into 2020 ready to build on that, whether that was academically, professionally, or personally. What happened was nowhere near the personal growth I’d anticipated, I feel like I’m worse off at the end of 2020 than I was at the end of 2019. But whenever you feel like was the last time you “had it all together,” just pick up from there, progress doesn’t have to be linear. Coming into 2021, I find I’m frequently reminding myself that none of this was my fault. There’s no goal I “failed” to meet, no version of myself that’s “supposed” to exist but doesn’t. There’s just the me that’s coming into 2021, ready to take on the world once again.
As I write this, I can’t help but think about all my plans for 2020, the things I moved to the backburner or had to cancel. They’re all things I still want: courses I want to take, places I want to visit, people I want to spend time with. I will get to do those things, someday, but for now, I need to focus on getting to the part where that happens. So, study hard, wear your mask, stay safe, and raise high in 2021. With a bit of luck, hopefully things will be better before we know it.
Wishing you all the best!
Peer Advisor Megan
megangreenstein@gwu.edu
