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Thursday, July 12, 2018

Thoughts from June 2018


Remember when I wrote the month-end post for May and was astounded that it was already mid-June?? Well, here I am again to write the month-end post for June! And can you believe it's already July 14?! 2018 is half way over and I'm in a state of shock.

June always feels like a big month to me. My team travels to TOI Nationals, the work I do at the school wraps up, and everyone starts shifting to a summer schedule. Plus, the year is officially half over, so it's the perfect time to sit down and re-evaluate goals. During the month, June is usually too busy for a lot of reflection. But to sum up the this second quarter of 2018, I wanted to share some thoughts that June brought up.

Whatever your thing is, seek community first and foremost. Between creating, working, and learning alongside other artists at the American Contemporary Skating Festival, to awesome group texts and before-work breakfasts with my colleagues at the school, to the camaraderie between all teams at TOI Nationals, June impressed me with the importance of not just doing big things, but embracing the people that value them, too. Life truly is so much better with friends.

Life is 1000 times better when you get outside. I love being outdoors, but June really showed me how much my happiness improves when I bring the little, everyday moments outside, too. In June I ran the Charles River in Boston after work, ate as many lunches outside as possible, took some great walks, and grabbed drinks on restaurant patios. Fresh air is my favorite happiness booster.

PC: KR Photogs
Be grateful for these moments. These moments are your life. A little cheesy, perhaps, but a huge lesson that came out for me at TOI Nationals this year. I competed on a Junior level team this year, and spent a good chunk of time focusing on getting on Senior for this upcoming season. But at Nationals, I really tried to to take a step back and just appreciate where I was. Not over-analyze where I was last year, not put so much into next year that I didn't appreciate the great team I was sharing the ice with. Each moment is so important. I want to be better at not rushing through them for the next thing.

Most good things start at you being who you are. Whether it's choreographing a new piece, dating, or applying to a new job, most good things don't have room to start if you're not being yourself. Don't kill something super early on because you're shadowing it with the person you think you should be. Once we do the work to get comfortable with who we are, we have room to do the work we're meant to do.

Going somewhere new is always worth the money. Enough said. End of story. I don't care how broke you are, if you want to go somewhere, go.


In case you missed it: Re-capping our Memorial Day weekend in Boston, our 2018 CE from TOI Nationals, and our 2018 FS from TOI Nationals.

Reading Update: In the month of June, I finished Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert which I found really engaging to read but not necessarily my favorite book ever. It did make me really want to go to Italy, though. I also finished Morality for Beautiful Girls (No. 1 Lady's Detective Agency #3) by Alexander McCall Smith, which was as enveloping and tranquil as ever, but also a little slow-moving this time around. I listen to these on audio, so I might just literally have to bump up the reading speed.

I'm currently in the middle of Final Harvest by Emily Dickinson (a poetry collection), A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (which I'm really, really, wanting to like but am having trouble getting into), and a collection of the Best Food Writing of 2012, compiled by Holly Hughes

Happy Thursday! Be the grittiest.
xoxo Gillian