AN UNPROFESSIONAL GUIDE TO FUFILLMENT

WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY JADYEN ARANA

DECEMBER 2022 WILD WEST ISSUE

Woohoo! Another year of me setting unrealistic expectations only to abandon them a couple of weeks into January. Sounds great. Like you, year after year, I’ve tried telling myself I’d change for the better, that this next year I would be unstoppable, awesome and totally badass. Cut to me in pajamas, frizzy third-day hair and stressing over the best of life’s trivialities. Yea, reality kicks in pretty quickly, and expectations seem unattainable. Still, even now, I’m expecting a major glow-up or life-changing moment that turns my life around by the time I’m 30. If it doesn’t happen this year, I’ll just do it next year. Sound familiar?

I asked a couple of people what they thought about their goals and expectations from the past year. Linus, a second-year computer science major, said that he had difficulty balancing his work sched ule with school. He felt like he had little time to rest and take a breather, but is proud of what he was able to accomplish. This past year his goals were to “be more positive and accepting, grow in his relation ship, find a job and get better at basketball.” Linus is content with attaining many of his expectations and looks forward to his continued growth. On a relatable topic, Gisel, a marketing major, said she wanted to stay motivated and patient this year as she tried to overcome the hurdles of college. Gisel struggled and felt that “sometimes it can be hard to not react to certain stuff because everyone has different ways of doing things.” She marks her growing patience as an accomplishment and knows that she has been consistently improving. and felt that “sometimes it can be hard to not react to certain stuff because everyone has different ways of doing things.” She marks her growing patience as an accomplishment and knows that she has been consistently improving.

On a side note, as individuals growing up in an overpopulated and exceedingly competitive society, it’s easy to sell yourself short and not recognize your accomplishments. I’m a victim of being my own worst critic, so I can relate to being patient, even with myself. Going back to student thoughts, Jammel, a third-year anthropology major, said something most could both relate to and find insightful. When thinking about his goals and reflecting on the year, Jammel said, “I definitely accomplished a lot of goals, I worked out, got a boyfriend, got a job and got my license. Honestly, the only thing stopping me was where I was at in life. After accomplishing these, I am actually happy. This is where I have wanted to be for a long time.”

For many students, the stress of classes, work, rela tionships and responsibilities comes crashing down, keep ing their minds enclosed to strict schedules, fast-paced living and getting by on little to no sleep. This survival-like lifestyle leaves limited room to step out of our comfort zones. More than often, we hold ourselves back from tapping into who we are, who we want to be and from reaching out for what we want for ourselves. Now, I’m in no way trying to tell you to get off your ass and get a move on. I’m not judging you here. Trust me, I’ve got a lot of self reflecting to do too.

We all go through different processes at our own pace, but it feels nice to start a new year feeling better than the year before. The cherry blossom symbolizes “renewal and rebirth, as winter ends and the world starts to warm up again.” Not to be corny, we change, but one based on a change in mind set. To quote Taylor Swift, “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me” (Anti-Hero). but going into this whole theme of blossoming into who you want to be and attaining the expectations you set, let’s pretend to be cherry blossoms. Like flowers, we have similar personal growth cycles and can bear the fruits of our growth. Limiting ourselves out of fear or any other reason will only trap us and hold us back from reaching our full potential.

As preparation for the upcoming year, look back at your lifestyle from this past year. Think about the feelings you experienced, the habits you developed, and your schedule. Then work with that to set realistic goals and expectations. I’ll do this as an example. This year I felt decent but had a rough time when stressful situations got the better of me. I made a habit of procrastinating when I usually don’t. To aid myself mentally next year, I’ll make an effort to take breaks and pamper myself hence, motivating me to keep working till my next break.

Have a friend, parent, your social media following or anyone keeping you accountable for what you have or haven’t done. This past year, my boyfriend was consistent about reminding me to drink less caffeine. I have a crippling addiction to Guayaki Yerba Mate; the Bluephoria flavor to be exact. I cannot begin to describe the love I have for this enlightening energy drink filled with all my replenishment needs. I’m getting sidetracked now, oops. But in reminding me to cut back on the yerb, my boyfriend helped me stay on track with lowering my caffeine intake.

I’m no professional, but I feel confident in saying that the steps to boosting your chances of reaching your yearly goals and expectations are to (1) take into consideration your current lifestyle and plan accordingly; (2) have someone or something to keep you accountable; (3) act like you’re the person you imagine yourself as 5 years from now and; (4) don’t be too hard on yourself, you are human, after all.

I can’t guarantee any overnight transformations by following these steps, but that really isn’t the point. If the majority of the reason why we don’t bloom into the person we want to be is ourselves, then it isn’t a transformation based on how quickly

Okay, imagine yourself 5 years from now living your dream life. How do you act? What are you wearing? How do you FEEL? Awesome, I’m presuming. I found that acting like who I want to be, makes the idea of that person seem within reach. I want to stand up for myself more and stop doing things for the sake of pleasing people. So now, I try to speak up when I feel a need to. Small steps like this eventually make the bigger steps easier to take.

Lastly, accept that you’re a human being that makes mistakes like everyone else and you’re allowed to take a step back for the sake of your health. Don’t be too hard on yourself. In a world where competition is rampant and life can turn into an abyss of stress, you will only have yourself at the end of the day. Sometimes after I finish an art piece, all I want to do is throw it away and all I see is an ugly mess. A lot of other people might not see it that way so even if you have a mess of a situation or feel like you’re at rock bottom, keep going until it gets better. Understand that in order to keep going, you need to forgive yourself and recog nize all that you’ve accomplished so far.

You got this.