Natcansnap

(in no particular order)

Open the windows up more.

Get behind the wheel - without having an anxiety attack!

Quit. being. so. social. media. obsessed.

Volunteer some more.

Travel some more.

Keep trying to work on, improve, and learn some new graphic design skills.

Check your bank account more often.

(?) Do some freelance photography.

Drink some more water.

(?) Try a hand at Halloween makeup.

That being said, there were some exhaustingly low points, both mentally & emotionally, that were new to me this year as well.

With resolutions being far easier said than done, I have only one that I'd really love to accomplish: to look back at my high & low points a year from now through a healthier, self-loving point of view.

- Learn some more about patience and persistence, and when how to use both to your advantage in the future.

- Dancing like an idiot in your room to your favorite songs as a teenager isn't as embarrassing as you think. What's there to be embarrassed about anyway? And why don't you do this more often?

- Put away those home movies lying on your desk from Christmas '99. Yes, happiness came much easier for that pig-tailed girl with the toothless grin, jumping around to Mambo No. 5 in front of all her tías. But just because she's grown up since then, doesn't mean she can't try to be as carefree and life-loving again from time to time.

As many people know, the government has failed to follow significant deadlines to reunite families separated by the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy introduced in April of this year. Despite the policy being turned down in June, parents and children - particularly from Central America’s tumultuous Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) - remain hundreds of miles apart.

With multiple deadlines to reunite groups of children (under 5 & 5-17) with their parents missed, the government has since appointed a committee composed of several non-governmental agencies to fix what the administration could not, pushing the task of reuniting families onto them. I currently work with one of those agencies.

For the past few weeks, the main task at hand from 9am to 5pm every weekday has been to assist in resolving a national crisis and defending the rights of migrant families. Despite my role being small compared to that of fellow co-workers (of which there are few), my workload has shifted and grown significantly from what it once was before our focus on family separation.

With emails, calls, meetings, documents, photographs, news articles, and miscellaneous small/large office tasks keeping my days busy, it’s easy to not get so emotionally invested in everything - there’s no time to do so, simply put. Time outside of work, however, is when I feel the most drained; Despite occasionally receiving praise from supporters or celebrating small victories while in the office, my time outside of it has become something that I wish it weren’t.

I spend time - perhaps too much time - trying to process all of the information I’ve received, and letting it become emotionally draining. Tears have been shed, meals have been missed, and nights have been full of negative thoughts as a result.

I try to wrap my head around just how much each of the affected children and parents - who, mind you, are in the thousands - have endured financially, physically, and mentally over such a short period of time. I fail to express just how absurd the struggles forced onto them have been.

Ultimately I’m thankful to be part of an organization that’s helping these families and shedding light on such a topical issue, and I count my blessings as often as I can. I do, however, wish that staying healthy both mentally and physically would come easier and that my thoughts and emotions, both of myself and of everything else, were not as dark as they have been (since before working with this organization as well).