Student Blog: My Ins and Outs of 2024

Happy New Year friends! 2023 was insane, but we all made it through and we made it here. It’s 2024! Which, sounds so crazy to me. I cannot believe I have only 1 year and a half of college left. I feel like I just started yesterday. I hope all of your years are going well so far and that you are staying warm!

There has been this tik tok trend going around about the Ins and Outs of 2024, where people list their “ins”, the things they are keeping in the new year, and the “outs”, the things they want to stop or get rid of in the new year. I love reading them when they come up on my TikTok feed. I, of course, had to participate in this trend and I made my own TikTok linked here, about my ins and outs and I wanted to share some of them here and talk about them. So, without further ado below are my ins and outs for 2024. To begin, I want to start with my ins. All the things that I love and want more of. And we know I love lists, so here we go!

Being Silly

I love being silly. I think everyone should be a little silly. I love to laugh and I love to make people laugh. I’m just a silly lil goose and no one can stop me.

Giving myself more Grace (pun very much intended)

I have discovered over this past semester and break, that I hold myself to almost impossible standards that I would never ever hold someone else to. And that is not fair to me. I would always stress out so much about messing up or doing something wrong, especially when it comes to theatre and the industry, but something I’ve come to realize is that we are all human. And all humans make mistakes. And that is okay. So if I do mess up or something does fall through the cracks, that is okay. I am going to be more forgiving to myself this year.

Loving, really big

Love. Loving other people and not being ashamed of it. Loving so big and so loud.

Resting. Resting a lot.

I know I’ve talked about this, but I used to feel so guilty for needing to take time to sleep or just lay on the couch and watch TikToks, even though everyone needs time to relax and rest. Otherwise, our bodies would not make it. I’m going to rest more. Not because I earned it, but because I need it to function.

Putting God above all else

He is the only reason I’m where I’m at and that I’ve made it this far. I owe it all to Him.

Saying No.

I hate risking letting people down or disappointing them, so I’m often afraid to say no to projects or certain things, even though I am a super busy person and have a lot going on. Two semesters ago, I said yes to too many things, heavily overbooked myself, and got oh so burnt out. And that wasn’t fair to any of the projects I was a part of. I stretched myself too thin. So, I am taking the word no with me into the new year. Currently, I am involved with 5 projects spread out across the semester and I still have time to work on my class work and to just be a human. And it feels so good.

Eat more cupcakes.

Like I mentioned previously, my grandma passed away while I was home for winter break. She was a light. She was a pal and one of the best women I’ve ever gotten the pleasure to do life with. All of us grandkids called her grandma cupcake and we all were her cupcakes. We got cupcake-themed gifts all the time. I have cupcake necklaces, Christmas ornaments, and the list goes on. This sounds so silly, but I wanna eat more cupcakes for her. To enjoy the little sweet things in life. Just like she did.

And a few others:

Hot cups of coffee and devotionals early in the morning

Taking Pictures, Lots of em.

Doing things that bring me joy

Now for the outs, all the things I need a little less of in my life

People pleasing

Doing things just because I’m scared of making someone upset or disappointed, even if it takes away from my own mental health and well-being. I don’t have to say yes to everything.

Overthinking everything.

I love to overthink. I love to sit and just think about all the things that could go wrong and if I do this, then so and so might not like me, or what if that isn’t the most convenient decision, etc. But that is not beneficial to me in any way and does not solve any of my problems. So, we are getting rid of that.

Caring so freaking much about what people think of me

I’m always afraid of saying things and sounding stupid or embarrassing myself so sometimes I just don’t say anything at all. And I want to work on not caring if I mess up or embarrass myself because we are all humans. We all mess up and embarrass ourselves sometimes. And that's okay. So I can say things. Because if I don’t I will never know what would have happened if I had.

Waiting weeks to text people back

I’m really bad at this one. Sometimes getting texts or Snapchats is really overwhelming to me, so I just ignore them and say I’ll respond later and I never do. I want to be better at that.

Rushing

I wanna slow down more. Enjoy all the things life has for me. I have so much time. I will do all the things. But I don’t have to do all the things right now. One day at a time. 

Those are my ins and outs! The year has started and I cannot wait to see all that it holds. As always, go do great things!

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