{"id":6475,"date":"2019-12-04T13:23:31","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T19:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/?p=6475"},"modified":"2019-12-04T13:23:31","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T19:23:31","slug":"november-in-a-few-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/2019\/12\/04\/november-in-a-few-words\/","title":{"rendered":"November (In a Few Words)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wow, only one month remains until the long-awaited year of 2020. This semester has passed by so fast, and I find that ridiculous. Anyway&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Well, before I picked through ambiguous journal entries, I was convinced that this month had ended before it had begun.<em> Wrong.\u00a0<\/em>I had almost no recollection of anything I read. But I shall present you the basic outline of November that I pieced together.<\/p>\n<p>I had a &#8220;blah&#8221; beginning, so to say, but November is kind of a &#8220;blah&#8221; month. I am fond of fall, but the season unravels far too quickly, giving to the fringes of winter (which I hate). Being honest, though, who likes leafless trees and conflicted temperatures? I kind of dislike winter, but at least it leads to the hope of snow. November only seeks to drive one mad. Okay, I am being a little dramatic. I would rather this than summer. But, yes, the beginning felt kind of like the weather. A little bit changed, especially the time (the time changed was very significant). And, most importantly, being here at MSA did not feel as surreal as it once did. I have sunken into some kind of comfortable routine, which I like. And I feared that I would resort to a disheveled disaster, but I am more organized than ever. I fear the organization; I have arranged some salt packets into rows.<\/p>\n<p>Although the beginning did not prove itself to be spectacular, I liked November. The uncertainties that clung to me during October flaked off, kind of like the dead and dying leaves, I guess\u00a0 \ud83d\ude15 . I hate feeling trapped in a relentless storm of confusion.<\/p>\n<p>I read a good book that restored my opinion of Michael Crichton.<\/p>\n<p>I could not go outside as much because of sad weather.<\/p>\n<p>I developed an addiction to tea. I guess it curbs my coffee addiction somewhat.<\/p>\n<p>And I have begun to listen to way too much music.<\/p>\n<p>But, all of this aside, I liked November&#8217;s philosophies. One in particular stood out to me, and I only recently found a name for it due to a positive psychology article. Recently, I have realized just how crucial a role gratitude plays. I have been a lot happier this year, and part of that is because of gratitude. For quite some time, I lived with potent pessimism, letting each day roll over me like an intolerable steamroller of cycling routine-doom. I did, however, possess an appreciation for the &#8220;little moments&#8221; in life, which I called smiles and friendliness and the savory bits of existence\u00a0(like tacos). But now, I have more gratitude toward what I have because, after all, I have so much. A few constants remain such as stress and nerves and negativity, but a nice environment and such help retain some balance. Now, I would rather spend my days in a coffee place with a corgi wearing a sombrero, surrounded by everything I love, but my environment is comfortable and without toxicity. To summarize this hefty paragraph, having more gratitude has helped me so much. I no longer wake up every morning to face the steamroller of routine, but I wake to see what the day presents. Although I am often tired and cynical, abiding by this mindset has changed my quality of living. That sounds so &#8220;whatever&#8221; (hah), but I love looking up into the sky and feeling full (this is a metaphorical statement).<\/p>\n<p>I hope that you all find gratitude in your daily life. It is not easy and you can not simply &#8220;choose&#8221; happiness, but feelings of contentment lie in reach; I hope all of you can hold on to such feelings. Life can feel incredibly cruel and then mundane at times, but the color is there, I promise. Persevere so that you may someday persevere more easily, and never shred the good in you.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Wednesday&#8217;s Fun Fact:<\/p>\n<p>November is the official month-long holiday of the valiant sport known as leaf-crunching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wow, only one month remains until the long-awaited year of 2020. This semester has passed by so fast, and I find that ridiculous. Anyway&#8230; Well, before I picked through ambiguous journal entries, I was convinced that this month had ended before it had begun. Wrong.\u00a0I had almost no recollection of anything I read. But I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/2019\/12\/04\/november-in-a-few-words\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;November (In a Few Words)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6475"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7525,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions\/7525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}