Life Of Ailanna

Hello, my name is Ailanna, and welcome to my blog Life Of Ailanna. The reason that I do this is to offer my advice to people who may need it.

Here are five tips that I’ve learned while in and after graduating from school. These tips could be beneficial for you to apply to your everyday life whether you’re in middle school, high school, college or etc.

1. How to Adjust to The Real World

I first realized that I had to adapt myself to the real world as I started to turn 18. It made me feel nervous and overwhelmed. One day I decided to sit myself down and get real with myself by listing out what it is exactly I had to take care of. Whether it was bills or responsibilities that I had to handle. It was my job to make sure that I took care of them because if I didn’t, there would be consequences for my actions.

First I mapped out what was it exactly I had to handle like bills or certain responsibilities. Second I figured out which one has the highest priority and the lowest priority. Third, I figured out what company I had to pay, what was the amount, and when it had to be paid. Fourth, I would take a few deep breaths and handle the situation.

When the situation is handled, it makes me feel so much better and relieved to know that it is handled. It also feels like an anchor was lifted off my shoulders.

2. Cherish Each Moment

I first learned to cherish each moment after my mom died when I was 13 from Stage 4 colon cancer. I learned this lesson for the second time when my aunt was shot and killed a year later. I learned this lesson for the third time when my grandfather passed away a year after my aunt died. I learned this for the fourth time when I started to notice that my senior year was winding down faster than I expected it to be. Life changes around us a lot without warning.

Taking a picture of every moment that you have whether it is with your family or your closest friends is a good example of cherishing each moment.

When you start to do that, you will be glad that you did because one day, you go back to reminisce about the good old days. You’re going to want to look at those picture(s). When I started to do this, it made me feel so much better and relieved to know that I was savoring each and every moment.

3. Friendships Change Over Time

Everyone always tells you this and then you think to yourself “that’s not true” but actually it turns out it actually is true. Even though you may not want to believe it, you are going to find out the truth sooner or later.

This first started when I was in middle school. I thought that all the people that I was friends with before were truly my friends but it turns out that I had to find that out the hard way. When I first found out about this, it hurt me and led me to be devastated. Eventually, it took some time to get over it.

It hurt when I first found out that this was actually is true. It led me to be paranoid and not want to pursue any more friendships with anyone. It may cause you to feel the same way. Life is going to continue to throw you curve balls to see if you can or cannot handle it. It depends on you how you handle it.

4. Tuning Out Negative Influences

For this tip, I’m still trying to put a lid on it. When it comes to negative influences at times it can be hard to block out those influences who discourage you or are negative.

When I first started to tune them out, I thought that it would be really easy but it turns out that it really is not. The reason is that it depends on the kind of influence the person has on you and who they are to you. I never thought of how much work it would be for me to be able to effectively do this.

My emotions were going up and down like I was on a rollercoaster and still do from time to time. It’s a hard thing to do this while also having a handle on your emotions because this will most likely stress you out mentally and emotionally.

5. Invest More Into Yourself

I always thought when someone would tell me to invest more into myself or something like that. I would usually be like blowing raspberries after they would say that. I would also ask myself why I have to do that now or what exactly does that mean.

Now I know what it means to invest in yourself, what it means is to put more time into making yourself look presentable when you go out or take better care of yourself.

When I decided to start doing this, it made me feel so much better about myself, my self-esteem went up more, and people’s perceptions changed about me.

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

-Nelson Mandela