What would you tell your 13 year old self....

After reading my last blog post, my friend Jamie reached out to me and came up with a great idea since we both want to write more, we will send each other 2 prompts on Sunday and we have the week to write one or both of them. The prompts she sent me this week were 1. The Good Life and 2. What would you tell your 13 year old self?

What would I tell my 13 year old self…..
“Tiffany, embrace your quirks and your individuality. Don’t change your hair because people think you should fit inside of the mold that they assume is made for everyone. Be ok with being yourself. Those who are meant to love you will love YOU for exactly who you are! Be brave! Think outside of the box.
Don’t get married at 18, girl!! You will change so much for years and years after that.
Go to college while you’re young! Travel more! Study abroad….”
Oh if we could really go back to 13 with the knowledge that we have at 40.
Though if you really think about it, the knowledge we have at 40 came from the choices we made at 13, at 18, at 25….
Although I wish I could go back and do a few things over like those listed above, I would not be the person I am today had I not made the choices I made every day before now. Who knows what person I would be today if even one of those things had changed. There is no way to know if it would have been better or not.
I admit that some days I look back and wonder; what could have been? What would have been if I had done this or that??
But as I sit in my back yard, one of my favorite places on the planet, I think to myself that I am pretty lucky. I have a good life; a wonderful family and friends, a good job, a cozy little home that I love. I have had the opportunity to travel and see so many places that I will never ever forget. Through travel and scuba diving I have learned that I am a brave person, that fear exists but it doesn’t have to control our lives, that you find yourself in the adventures you take. Wow, that is something that I needed to be reminded of right this very moment. Being content with life is good, but being complacent is something entirely different.
I am happy with the life I have but I am always hungry for more. This has been a struggle for me at times, when I feel so anxious for change that I feel guilty that maybe I am not being grateful for the things I do have. I have come to learn that it is ok to be happy with life but striving for adventure and for things to be different as well.
This has been an eye opening challenge for me and I am grateful for being given the opportunity to take a look back, to embrace the good I have in my life and to be excited about the future and the next adventure that awaits.
Yesterday was, today is and tomorrow will be; The Good Life.

I have been challenged... to write

My friend Nic and I have been hiking the past month and a half or so and we talk and talk and talk....
We have begun to call it "hiking therapy" because we get out in the beautiful mountain air and talk about everything.
The past Saturday we did a 4 hour hike to Red Pine Lake in Little Cottonwood canyon. During our hike he asked if I had been writing. I can't even recall that I mentioned to him that I enjoyed writing and that it helped me process through the tough times but I must have and I am so glad I did. When he asked if I had been writing lately all I could say was "no". I had to look inside myself for the "why". That is always the hard question to ask myself; "Why have I not been writing?" I can't even find a solid reason. I wonder if it is just simply because I am afraid of the things I would write if I put my pen to paper. Am I afraid to face the things that are going on inside of me?
Why does fear keep us inside ourselves when we know how much it would help to get it out.
Hiking therapy has been great. And I feel that I can again be held accountable, even just every now and again, to acknowledge even the small steps taken.
Next time he asks me if I have been writing I will be able to say "yes", if even just a little.

A diver...

Swimming in the ocean with a mask, fins and a tank. I never thought I could be that person, a diver, but I am. The ocean calls to me more than most places I have stood with my two feet. How can words properly describe the feelings I have about diving? I am fearful of the oceans surface, the waves crashing about so haphazard and powerful but when given the sign that we are ok to descend, the fear stays on the surface. The calm and serenity of the ocean underneath, it is indescribable really. When someone says “Go to your happy place” it is the blue of the ocean that my mind instantly surrenders. The bright fish and sea turtles; the flow of water bending the edges of the sandy bottom into tiny scalloped ripples; the tiny snake like creatures that protect themselves by appearing to be sea grass slowly sinking back into the sand when approached; the seemingly bottomless and endless darkening blue that deepens below you as you search a coral wall for creatures. I didn’t consider myself a swimmer before I was a diver, but I suppose they go hand in hand. I don’t jump into a pool and set fear aside and stick my face under water and not worry about drowning, but when I take my giant stride into the ocean from the edge of a bobbing boat I set fear on the deck and jump into myself. Into a world that not everyone is brave enough to go. There is a sense of pride that comes along with the knowledge that I am a diver.....

Welcome 2015

Well here we are yet again, another new year upon us. I am grateful for a new year and the hope it offers.
I have not necessarily thought about "resolutions" per say, but what I am thinking about is actually doing more of whatever it is that will change my life for the better. For the last 5 years I have been thinking about and talking about doing "something" more, something meaningful, something that will make a difference to someone, somewhere, somehow. And for the past 5 years I have done little to move forward with this. My words have fallen flat without action.
Today is the day that this will change.
I don't have a perfect road laid out, or a plan that will guarantee success, but I have a heart that is full and the desire to make some changes and to DO something!! To finally do something to get myself headed in this direction rather than just continuing to complain about the fact that my life has not changed or progressed.
It is up to me!!
I am looking forward to all of the things that 2015 will bring...

What are you hoping 2015 will bring to you?