With a new semester and new year starting, I am hoping that 2021 is better in all aspects. 2020 brought a lot of ups and downs for so many people but out with the old and in with the new! My personal mantra is staying positive and life is all about perspective. I came back to school a week before the semester started to decompress and spend some time self-reflecting. This helped me a lot especially in terms of envisioning what I want for myself this year and important things I wish to achieve and grow from.
Part of my period of self-reflection included catching up on some reading. When I am home for the holidays, I often find that there is so much going on and I am so focused on seeing people that I don’t see during the school year, that I never have time to just relax and do the things I actually plan to do on break. When I came back to school, I finished a fiction book that I was reading, and now I am reading “You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life” which is a very popular self-help book. I actually thrifted this book before coming home for the holidays at Philly AIDS Thrift for $1.50! I was shocked to see this book there because it is still very popular and being sold for full price at bookstores, so I got pretty lucky finding it especially since it’s been on my list of things to read for a while now. I am only halfway through the book but so far, I am enjoying it a lot.
The book reminds people to not be so hard on themselves no matter the situation. It also makes a point to push yourself to be the best version of yourself, which means ignoring people who criticize you or question big life decisions that you make for yourself. This is a big point to make because so many people are constantly trying to figure out who they are and it can be ten times harder to do when those around you are making you feel as if your dreams and aspirations for life are out of reach. At the end of each chapter the author constantly reiterates that it is important to love yourself and accept yourself with all your flaws. Another thing that I took note of from this book so far is that self-deprecating humor might not be as funny as you think it is. I am guilty of using this type of humor however I didn’t realize how harmful it could actually be. In the moment, it seems harmless but after you start doing it you start to form a bad habit of doing it consistently.
Jen Sincero (author) goes on to explain that self-deprecating humor is something that anyone can do, and that you are actually just giving away your insecurities for free when you do this. This resonated with me and showed me a different perspective on something that I am guilty of doing. Overall, I am excited to finish this book and hope it can give me more pointers for self-love and self-growth! I recommend this book to people of all ages looking for a new beginning!