growing up pod

The speaker is happy to be recording a podcast again and excited for Season 2. They plan to start each podcast by sharing three things they are grateful for. The first thing they are grateful for is music and how it connects them to others. The second thing is their ability to weightlift and the connections they have made through it. The third thing is their living situation and having their own room. The speaker then discusses the topic of growing up and how college allows them to be their true self and make their own decisions. They encourage high school students to not stress about college and to make the most of their time there. Growing up can be scary, but it also comes with the freedom to make choices for oneself. Hey everyone! I'm so happy to be finally recording a podcast again. This year, so far, has been absolutely crazy, but absolutely amazing. So I cannot wait to get started on Season 2. And I cannot wait to start filming Season 2 for you guys. I have a lot planned, and I am so excited to share it with you. So, for Season 2, I want to start something new, where every podcast, at the beginning, I share three things that I am grateful for. I know I did this a little bit last season, but I want it to become a ritual before every single podcast where I share that. And this may not only just help me be grateful for everything that I have, but it might also help others, if they're struggling to find things that they're grateful for, maybe give them some ideas, because I think that this activity is so small, but can be so helpful in so many different parts of your life. So the first thing that I want to say that I'm grateful for, this podcast, is music. And I know this kind of sounds weird, but recently I've been really connecting to music of just all sorts. I've always been a big fan of just listening to music in the car, and listening to music doing schoolwork, etc. But recently, I feel like just lyrics of songs have just started to mean a lot more to me as I've gotten older. And I just love the wide variety of music that there is out there, that if I'm in a bad mood, I can listen to sad music, if I'm in a good mood, and if it's summer, and if the windows are down, I can listen to happy music, or whatever mood I'm feeling, there's always going to be a song to match it. And I know this may seem small, and it is, but something about connecting with others when it comes to music has been a great point of bonding for a lot of my friends and myself. And I know this is so basic, but Taylor Swift has literally brought me a community of people that I never would have thought that I would have had. And I know a lot of people can say this, but a lot of people can say this, because the community of us is just so amazing and so wholesome, and I know I can speak for a lot of my friends for the same thing. Okay, moving on. Number two is going to be just the ability that I have to be able to weightlift. My body has gone through a shit ton in the past decade, let's say, and the fact that I'm able to weightlift without any injuries, knock on wood, and that I'm able to throw up some heavy weight above my head is just crazy. And I'm not only thankful for what my body is able to do while lifting weights, I'm also thankful for the people that weightlifting has been able to connect me with. It's been a whole different group of people that I would have never been able to connect with if I hadn't started weightlifting. And not only my weightlifting team, but meeting people in the gym at school, meeting people at the gym at home, and just connecting with people that are also in the weightlifting community has been a really great experience. Okay, last but not least, number three is going to be how grateful I am for my living situation right now and that I have the ability to have my own room. It's really been such a game changer. I can kind of come into my room and just relax, and I always try and do my schoolwork out of my room so I can keep that boundary that my room is my room to relax and it's not my room to stress and do schoolwork with. And I think I talked about this in season one, but having that boundary set has been such a game changer for me. The environment that I have coming into my room is way different now that I don't stress out in my room. I don't let myself get stressed out in my room at all. And being able to be on a campus where there's a bunch of different places you can go study and a bunch of different places that are close to my apartment has been super helpful because if I just have to go do one small homework assignment, I can just go walk two minutes and go do it somewhere else so I'm not sitting in my room. So now on to today's topic. Today's topic is going to be about growing up. It's going to be about the good, the bad, the weirdness, the awesomeness, everything about growing up. I've been thinking on this topic for a while now and I'm one and a half years into college. I wouldn't say I'm a grown-up. I mean, I'm 20 years old, but I wouldn't qualify myself as a grown-up yet. But I've learned, I've lived, I've experienced, so take this all with a grain of salt. I've learned, I've lived, I've experienced, so this is what you're going to get, the real, raw me. So I talk about this a lot with my friends, but I love, love, it's my favorite thing in the entire world when I see somebody from high school become their real self when they get to college. And what I mean by that is I feel like when everybody's in high school, everybody wants to be like the same person. Everybody's wearing the same thing every day, meaning everybody is wearing the same thing as each other. Everybody is wearing very similar clothing to each other with maybe some exceptions. Everybody's acting the same in high school. Everybody wants to be going to the same football game in high school. Everybody wants to be doing blah, blah, X, Y, and Z. Everybody wants to date this boy. Everybody thinks this boy is hot. In college, when I see somebody from high school, whether it's on Instagram or on TikTok or whatever, and I see them become their true self, it is just such a breath of fresh air. When you're in high school, you're so stuck in that cycle of wanting to be like everybody that you can't fully let yourself be yourself. And from personal experience, in high school, I would have never put myself out there and gotten an internship. I would have never put myself out there, done a podcast, never put myself out there to move living situations or make friends or be the first one to text someone. And now I can finally be myself and do what I want to do. And, of course, this is obviously easier said than done. Of course this takes practice and this takes time. But that realization that you can be yourself and you can surround yourself by people who want to be friends with you and not people that are being fake to you or are just using you or just like you because you have money, you have cool things, you have a nice house, you're, quote, unquote, in the popular group in school, nobody cares about that in college. And especially being on a bigger campus here at UNH, you can be friends with whoever you want to be friends with. And if you decide to move on from a group of people, that is just so okay and so normal. College is about growing up, finding your people, finding yourself, seeing what you want to do with your life. I know that's like a big question for everybody in college, but you get to take so many different courses, so many classes, so many jobs, so many internships. You have so much opportunity to find who you are and what you want to do in college that you just don't get in high school. If I have any juniors or seniors in high school listening to this podcast right now, you're probably in the stage where you're wicked stressed about deciding where you're going to go to college, deciding where you're going to apply, being stressed about if you're going to get into a school, if you're going to get rejected, if you're going to get deferred. Let me tell you, it always works out. And I know this is easier for me to just say this to you than you actually thinking it, but never in a zillion, trillion, gajillion years did I think that I would end up at UNH, and now I truly cannot see myself in any other school. And I know people say that college is the best four years of your life. You need to take every moment. You can't take any moment for granted. But truly, college is what you make of it. Be at any school and be just as successful as if you were at Harvard or if you were at a community college. College gives you so much opportunity to try new things and go out of your comfort zone. And if you let college and if you let yourself reach out on those opportunities, you are going to be set up for success. And it really doesn't matter what school you're at. I also feel like in college, people genuinely want to be there. Well, in high school, people literally would do anything in the world to not be there. At college, you don't have to go to college. You can decide to do anything else with your life. College isn't necessary. College isn't mandatory. And it's a privilege to be at college. And people are just so much more motivated to do their schoolwork, to go to class, to do good in school than in high school. And I feel like that just, like, kind of shifts, like, your viewpoint on school as a whole. And at least it did for me. Put music here. I always think about the fact, when you're a kid, you cannot wait to be an adult. And everybody says, when you're an adult, all you want to do is be a kid. And while I feel like that is extremely accurate in most parts of life, there's absolutely nothing we can do about growing up. Time isn't going to stop. Time isn't going to stop for you. While a lot of parts of growing up can be so scary, trust me, I get it, there's no way to avoid it. And while that can be a super intimidating and overwhelming feeling, why not take it to your advantage and why not let it motivate you? When you're young, especially when you're under 18, your parents have control over you. Legally, you can't really make any decisions on your own. And also, you're young. You're not going to want to make decisions on your own. And as an adult, when you're over 18, you get to start making decisions for yourself. And while that can be scary, it's also a pretty cool thing. You can wake up one day and just say, you know what, I'm not going to go to class today. No one is going to stop you. You can wake up one day and go, you know what, I'm going to have a steak dinner for breakfast. No one is going to stop you. You can also wake up one morning and say, you know what, I'm going to buy a fucking dog. I mean, financially it might not be your best decision, but no one is going to stop you. You have so much freedom. Well, not all the freedom in the world, but you have a lot of freedom. And you get to decide what you want to do with your life. If you want to be a fart and stay in bed all day, go for it. No one is going to stop you. If you want to go run a marathon, If you want to go start your own business one day, go for it. When you're an adult, the world is your oyster. And I know people are very scared and intimidated to say that you're an adult and to say that you're a grown-up, but being a grown-up is kind of cool. And this brings me to my next point. Being a grown-up where you're not stuck in your mental illness is even freaking cooler. Today at around 2 p.m., I was in a bad mood. I had to bring the dog back that I was babysitting. And I was like, you know what, I'm going to go walk to my car and drive to McDonald's. I'm going to pick up a friend. We're going to go to McDonald's at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Great, I have so much freedom that I can just pick myself up and do that. If I were stuck in my mental illness, if I was stuck in my eating disorder, my depression, my anxiety, there is a 0% chance that I would have, when I was sad this afternoon, gotten myself up and gone to go get food. But since I'm healing and since I'm in recovery, food is my happy place. I love going for a drive. I love going to get McDonald's. I love going to get food. And that just takes my adult freedom to just a whole other level. So I want to tie back into what I was talking about before I went on this long tangent of how much I love seeing people thrive when they get to college. Learning to love yourself and learning to love who you actually are as a person doesn't come easy. And it doesn't come easy for, I don't think, anybody. Recently I've learned a lot about myself. I've learned that I don't like drinking. I would rather stay in, have a chill night with some friends, maybe have a glass of wine here or there. Drinking just doesn't make me feel good. Of course I'll go out, have some drinks every now and then, but going out two or three times a weekend just isn't something that I enjoy. I also recently learned about myself how much I love just getting into bed early and watching a movie. And even if the movie is just on in the background of me on my phone or doing whatever, having that time with the lights off, maybe putting a candle on and a movie in the background is exactly how I want to end every day. And learning about yourself doesn't have to be these huge things that people say it might be. You don't have to one day wake up and be like, I'm going to be an astronaut. I'm going to save the world. No, it doesn't come like that. Learning about yourself takes time, takes practice, takes patience. And once you find out small things about yourself, like how I like to watch a movie every night, it opens up a door to be able to learn more. I really hope that made sense. It made sense in my head, but I really do think learning about yourself is such a process and it takes a long time and it really takes patience and practice. I truly do believe that throughout your whole life you will start to learn other things about yourself. And I feel like it's kind of a never-ending process, but it's a really rewarding process when you find something out about yourself that really benefits your life. And truly, these can be tiny things, like it can be as small as you waking up a certain time in the morning and you like going to bed at a certain time or you like hanging out with friends this day and not that day. It's such a learning process and a growing process that it's kind of always fluid. Add music here. I wanted to give a big thank you to everybody that has just been so supportive and so amazing to me on my Instagram, on my TikTok page, on just everything. You've all been so amazing and I'm so thankful for each and every one of you. I have lots of things planned ahead. I have the NIDA walk that I'm planning with some friends. I plan to get some fun guests on here this season, so look forward to that. I'm so excited to come on next time. I have an exciting topic to share with you all. Thank you for taking the time to listen to my podcast. There are no words that describe how much I am so thankful for all of you. I hope you enjoyed this podcast and I will see you guys next time.