Season 3 Episode 1. New Year and Accepting Change

Hello, and welcome to The Storied Human. Welcome to 2023. In two months, I'll have had this podcast for a year. I really can't believe it, like a lot of things in my life. It just flies by doesn't it the time you look back and you say, how could it possibly be that long? But how did I get here? Well, I got here because I was super inspired by a podcast class that I took, right? A few months before I started the podcast. And I met these incredible people in the class, the class was with Kathy Heller, she's super inspirational. But it's the people that held me up along the way. I just made a commitment to my podcast, I work full time, it's not like I have a whole lot of extra time. But I just wanted oexplore my voice and do something creative and connect with other people. I'm pretty much like half introvert. But the pandemic made me crave contact. And I really wanted to hear people's stories because I'm such a story person. You know, I'm a writer, I've always written professionally. And personally, I do a lot of creative writing. I'm on medium. I'm a tech writer for my profession. But I wanted a different way to express myself. And I wanted to use my voice. And I wanted to let other people tell me the story. So I just was kind of surprised that I wanted to do this. Because my whole life I said, you know, I've always written. But I've always enjoyed talking to people and hearing what they had to say. And I'm sort of super motivated by people who have gone through a transformation, I think we can learn from others people's lessons, I've always said that, there's no reason to repeat exactly what they went through, you can learn from them. So that's how this kind of came together. But the reason it lasted this long is these wonderful people. In my podcast class, we've stayed connected, we meet regularly. And it I've been trying to think really hard because I often ditched things I started over the years. And I never told anyone I started them. So I got away with it. But it made me feel depressed and not proud of myself. And I feel like this podcast, just this one thing, this one endeavor, broke me out of that habit. And I have a confidence that I didn't have before. And if there's a secret to it, I think there's two secrets. The first one is promise yourself, you're not going to give up. No matter what you might pivot, you might change what you're going to do. You might be creative and switch things, but you're still doing it, you're not going to give up. And the second thing is, and this is more important than anything, surround yourself with people that believe in you that are positive and that are doing the same kinds of things. Because honestly, I've done so many things by myself over the years. But this has been so much better. And I have met such wonderful people. And I've interviewed several of them on the podcast, they've been so generous with their time. So that's my message about this podcast. But I also wanted to share something about dealing with loss and dealing with changes. It's never easy for me. I've spoken about grief before, I'm not going to talk about grief, this time, I'm going to talk about changes. And as we get older, and if we have children especially, I think we envision a certain life that we're going to have with those children. And sometimes that doesn't happen. You know, it's not a bad thing at all. It's just sometimes what we dream is not what they were dreaming or what they end up doing. And my example is I just pictured that I would have time after college with my oldest my daughter, Catherine, but she moved to Australia and married her longtime boyfriend. And it's wonderful for her. She has a great life there. But it's been a big adjustment for us. And it's taught me a lot about dealing with change. You know, I never was good at it. I mean, I just never was the kind of person that could deal gracefully with change pretty much because I'm you know, working on being not a control freak, but I still have those tendencies. So it hit me when I was watching Love Actually today the very last scene is this beautiful overlay of the Each boys song, God only knows what I do without you. And it shows these reunion pictures of people in, presumably Heathrow Airport. And it's picture after picture of people joyfully greeting each other and hugging. And I have seen this movie before. And I don't remember that scene hitting me as emotionally as it did today. And I realized why. Because I know that reunion in a way that I never knew it before. And I cherish when my daughter is flying in, like in October, just to see her face in person again, I mean, thank goodness for video chats and things like that. But just to see her and hug her. I just really related to that scene, and I really, I had a moment I realized, okay, I get it now, and I have adjusted to this change. So why am I talking about this, I guess to encourage you, if your child has ended up doing something different from what you pictured, or your spouse, or anyone in your family or friends, if something has changed, be gentle with yourself. Take your time, find a way to adjust to it. Because change is always going to happen, right? And we have to learn to be good to ourselves, and, and adjust and accept it. And this is hard for me like I said, but it's not impossible. And we can do it. So for 2023 My my wish for you is that you accept changes that come your way and maybe find the good in them and be good to yourself. Thanks for listening to the story human. I really am grateful. I have over 1000 downloads and it's been slow and steady the growth. I'm doing this totally for fun, but it's so nice to reach more people. And I thank you and wish you the best New Year possible.