Hello friends! Today at Mono's Anime Rants, I'm starting the January blog challenge known as Bloganuary. I will answer one prompt each day. The goal is to develop better blogging habits and practice every day. Go to this site if you're interested in Bloganuary. I think it will be fun. Since I didn't start right at the beginning of the month, I'm catching up in this post.
Note: This blog challenge will appear on Mono's Anime Rants, but will not have very much (if anything) to do with anime. However, I will include random anime images and gifs. :)
Day 1: What is something you want to achieve this year?
In 2023, there's a lot I want to accomplish, but I'm rather cynical about the likelihood of actually doing those things. Examples include eating healthier, drinking less alcohol, walking every day, and getting a part-time job. I'm trying to have faith in myself and keep up my motivation, but it's very difficult for me to anything. I do know one thing I want to accomplish this year that I will definitely do even if I don't want to: continue therapy. :P
Day 2: How are you brave?
I don't consider myself brave in any way. I'm afraid of most things and unwilling to take the next steps most of the time. I've got Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, Major Depressive Disorder, and even more diagnoses that each make it hard for me to leave my apartment or get anything done. Since I must answer the prompt though, I'll try to think of just one example of me being brave.
Pretty much all I can think of is that, in a way, it's brave of me to keep existing. I was suicidal for a long time, but now that's a thing of the past. Considering how many problems I have, I guess it's neat that I continue to commit to existing. I even enjoy life on some days! Hopefully, I will keep improving. :)
Day 3: What is the earliest memory you have?
Memories often can't be trusted, especially those from many years ago. I'll share my earliest memory with that caveat. Also, it's not an exciting memory at all. I just remember we were moving from one house to another. Specifically, I remember my mom packing up boxes of clothes for the move. She was packing children's yellow raincoats into the boxes.
According to what I worked out with my family members and their memories, this would have been when I was only two and a half years old. I guess that's why my mom is as tall as a titan in that memory and why I was sitting on the floor. Since we only moved twice in my entire life (prior to college), it must have been an exciting thing for me. So, my mind decided it was a memory worth keeping. That's it. Pretty boring.
Day 4: What is a treasure that's been lost?
This is a tough one. It took me a while to think of something. Finally, I decided to use a personal example of something in my life that I think was a treasure that I no longer have access to: the trees and flowering shrubs at my family's old house.
We lived in that one house for many, many years-- I think like 18 years. There were a lot of very old oak trees, plus a tall tulip tree and a fat old magnolia. We also had flowering azalea bushes, a rhodedendron, a few small roses bushes, and one Gardenia. It was a beautiful place to live. No matter what toxic crap was going on at the time, if I could just escape into the yard, I would be alright. Those old trees and bright flowers brought me solace.
Unfortunately, circumstances made it so my family had to sell that house. It's very sad to think that I can never go back there. I haven't been to see it myself, but I heard from other family members that several trees and many bushes were removed. That's a treasure lost forever. I hate to end on a sad note, but that's all I've got for today. See ya!
Thanks for reading~