Fall 2024 State of the Union Address

it's never that serious

I am back and I am sooo sleepy while I write this, but it must be done. I’m scheduled to be on campus for nearly 12 hours straight today (life of a commuter) and my body is not holding up well by hour 6. I need to take a nap, desperately, and my eyes keep closing. But we persist. And in doing so, I’ve come up with my Fall 2024 State of the Union address. Enjoy!! This is inspired by a substack piece that I read two days ago and I thought it was so fun and wanted to do something similar. 

1. I will not be embarrassed for no reason at work.

This is major for me. I’m the kind of person who finds everything I do and say to be awkward for the most part, even if that’s definitely not the case. Prior to my current internship, I mostly worked customer service jobs, and it’s really different from the corporate world. So I’m getting used to that, and while figuring out how to navigate this new side of my life and all kinds of jargon, I’m trying really hard not to be embarrassed. Embarrassment is a choice!! And learning is not. Learning is integral to life, so I’m trying to be more accepting of myself when it comes to those learning curves and mistakes, whether it’s an awkward Slack message I sent or something I misinterpreted for a project. I. Will. Not. Be. Embarrassed.

2. I will not take FOMO seriously and go at my own pace.

It’s my senior year of college and I’ll keep it real, it’s quite boring. This is probably something that’s very specific to me and my life, so take it with a grain of salt. But most of my closest friends have graduated already, so I just go to class and then go home. I am not one of those people who will look back at college as my best four years. Instead, I look at it for exactly what it was to me: long periods of struggling and growth with moments of shimmering hope and goodness in between. I will talk more about this later but what I’m here to say is that it’s okay if your life doesn’t look like a movie because no one’s really does, we’re all just pretending. I would much rather go at my own pace and do the things that I want to do than feel guilty that I’m not out at a certain time or that I’m doing assignments instead of hanging out where everyone is. FOMO might feel very real but it doesn’t need to be permanent. It can be fleeting, like a thought, or a cloud passing overhead. 

3. Morning walks are IN, listening to sad music all the time is NOT. 

This is pretty self explanatory. A discovery that I made last summer that sticks with me till this day, when I realized maybe I shouldn’t be listening to Phoebe Bridgers as soon as I wake up and then being surprised as to why I don’t want to get out of bed. I needed to understand that sometimes you don’t need to think about your situationship from two years ago to feel something. Maybe you just need to go on a walk and feel the sun on your skin instead. It’s good for you and requires no effort to pull back into the depths of your memory and remember the hurt. Instead, I listen to a podcast or my chill morning playlists that don’t really elicit any strong emotions from me. A walk can just be a walk, it doesn’t need to transform you!! It’s never that serious.

4. I will work out because it’s good for me and I like how I feel after. 

This is one that I put off for years. I hadn’t had a workout routine that I consistently stuck with since I ran cross country and track my freshman year of high school. And I admit, it made me feel better and more energized throughout my week. So for the past month or so, I’ve made it a habit to go almost every morning - early, because I like when the gym is mostly empty, work out, and then start my day. It’s become a habit that I’m so grateful for. 

5. Making coffee at home > buying coffee from outside

Real ones know that this is HARD for me. I love coffee shops, and I love buying coffee. It’s one of the only things I really spend money on, and there was a point in time last semester where I bought coffee from the shop behind my apartment almost every day, even if I didn’t feel like I particularly needed or wanted it. I’m changing my ways though! I don’t have an espresso machine or even a moka pot but I DO have instant coffee, brown sugar, and whole milk and it tastes great and comes out just fine. Call me an underconsumption queen. 

This is all for today. I’m inclined to apologize for the slightly rushed and informal writing, but I feel good about everything I’ve said, so why not keep it that way? Hope your Fall is everything that you wished for and more.

Talk to you soon,

Umme