In my daily blog entries one of my goals is always to synthesize my day into a centralized theme.  At first I anticipated that this would be very difficult.  After all, no one's day is a perfect string of events that fit into a crisp, clean, box.  You'd think that some days would just be too mundane to have a theme, and some days too erratic and uncontrolled.  But twenty-eight days into my daily blogging, I realized that finding a central theme for my days hasn't been much trouble at all.  In fact, every day has left me with some major impression that sticks with me for one reason or another.  A lingering sense of the emotional, social, and physical, environments in which I swim all day.  None of my days have been particularly life changing, but they have been incredibly influential.

My daily blogging has made me realize how blind I am to the world around me, and the meaningfulness of the many interactions that I have with people on a daily basis.  When I sit down at night to write my daily entry, I do a quick rewind through my day, picturing the people, the activities, the mistakes, the successes, the calmness, and  the chaos.  Every day includes all of these. I review them all, but it is not until that very moment of review that I actually consider all that I've done in the day, how I've spent the last 12-14 hours.   That's a lot of time to spend without considering how I'm spending it.  12-14 hours a day, for 25 years of my life, with only small amounts of conscious thought about those hours.  A lot of time.

The best thing about doing my daily blogs is that every evening I experience the greatest sense of gratitude and awe at the day I've had.  I know that sounds super corny, but it's true.  I think back at all of the new people I met, and all of the things I learned, and I am so incredibly grateful to be able to live the life that I do.

For example, in thinking back on my day today, I realized that two students told me that I "changed their life."  I mean, seriously, what is that!?  While I don't believe that I actually changed their lives, the fact that they even think I did is thoroughly humbling.  I also discovered a new technique for dissolving sugar crystals in iced coffee, facebook stalked a best friend who is loving his life, spent an hour with a bunch of teenage girls who talked incessantly, and worked really hard.  What an amazing and inspiring day, and that day was simply a compilation of minuscule, but amazing, moments.

And that's what a little bit of reflection and thinking can do.  It can change your perspective, make you realize how #blessed you are (is that still a thing?), make you understand the impact that you have on others and the impact that others have on you.

My life is full of awesome.  Next on the list: don't wait until night-time to realize it.

Keep on thinking,
Josie