Living in the Moment

“I think everyone has a certain part of their life where they truly wish they could freeze time. Whether it was three years ago, today, or still to come. Whether it was just a moment, a whole day, or a whole summer. Everyone has a time in their life where they wish everything would just stop, the world would stop turning and the people would stop changing. Because to them, at that time, everything was perfect.”

I read this this morning on The Love Whisperer‘s Tumblr.

There’s so many times I wish I could bottle up a certain moment, day or even a certain stage in my life and get to go back and relive it. I try to focus on the times that I would want to relive or revisit because they were just that wonderful. There are certain occasions where I think back and would like a second chance because things didn’t go the way I wanted – but, always try to see the bigger picture and focus on what I learned from that particular point in my life. I started to think about if I had 5 days that I could revisit, what days would I choose to travel back in time to? Off the top of my head, this is what came to mind:

• • • • A Friday in High School: No particular day. Just go back and experience my friends, my favorite teachers, eating cookies and chips with Ashley as soon as the cafeteria opened, dance class, go for a run on the track, sneak out to go to Coffee Connection, Papa Ginos pizza and breadsticks, a dance (those things were serious), a sleepover with my friends… You know, just really get a chance to appreciate High School for all that it was… before life got even crazier and a little messy.

Senior Year.

• • • A Dance Competition: Growing up, the girls that I danced with were some of my best friends and we were for sure a little family. We spent so much time together and got to share a lot of laughs and tears over the years.  They were the big sisters I never had. These girls were amazing then and now they’ve all become such beautiful women, most of them have started their own families – can’t wait until they turn into crazy Dance Moms! 😉

Are these Danskin or Capezio?!

• My Cousin’s Wedding: My cousin Patrick got married on May 28, 2011 in Mobile, Alabama. I absolutely love weddings and this one was no exception – it was perfect. My mother, sister and I had driven down from Charlotte to go to the wedding. If I could relive every single moment of that trip I would – mainly because on May 29th my sister was unexpectedly taken from us. Our first experience at Whataburger, lipsyncing SirMixAlot in the video booth, all of the pictures taken that night, Samantha laughing at me for crying during the ceremony, watching Lady Gaga’s “Inside the Outside” (particularly when she mentioned cycling around NYC, “What’s the worst that could happen? ‘Are you Gaga?’ ‘Yeah’ *ding ding*”) and SO much more. It REALLY is about the LITTLE things in life.

Cupid Shuffle. Naturally. Was this before or after my Mom demanded I got on stage to do the “Dougie”?

• • • A Christmas Eve: It’s always been tradition to go to my Mom’s side of the family on Christmas Eve and go to my Dad’s side on Christmas Day. I would love to go back to a Christmas Eve when all of my cousins (and sister) and I were young. The excitement and joy that was present on that night is so heart warming. Nowadays, when I see young children open presents and the sparkle they get in their eyes when talking about Santa, I literally melt. It never seems to matter how big or small a present was. The look on a child’s face when they are opening a gift, especially on Christmas, is absolutely priceless.

I didn’t have any photos that capture the madness that took place at my Nana & Papa’s house, but figured this precious photo of my Sister and Nana would be sufficient.

• • • Christmas Night 2010: Once we got a little older, my sister, two cousins and I would go with my Mom to the movies. After eating all day and being in a crowded house, we would get out for a little bit to go see one of the new releases. Four years ago, Brittany, Peter, Samantha and I went to the movies together. I would love to go back to that night and cherish each and every moment. It breaks my heart when I think that Samantha and Peter won’t be here with Brittany and I as we continue on life’s journey, but it’s moments like these, captured in this photo, that bring a smile to my face (even with tears streaming down).

There’s plenty of things that I am missing on this short list. Our brains have a funny way of working. We can see, hear, taste, touch or smell a particular thing and it immediately brings us back to something a few years ago – often times, something that we never thought we would think about again. I keep coming back to the same theme lately of “Living in the Moment”.

I’ve always been the type of person that jam packs my schedule full with more than I should. As a child, I grew up dancing competitively and doing gymnastics. Gymnastics didn’t last too long because once it got time to doing things with no hands (“Look Ma, no hands”) somebody got a little scared. If I wasn’t at school, the dance studio or a dance competition I was with friends and family pretty much nonstop.

Once I got to High School, I continued to dance competitively, but also got involved with my High School’s Dance Program and ran Indoor and Outdoor Track all four years. Since High School brought along a even busier social life, my days were a constant go go go. Going off to college and getting more responsibility, I was introduced to a lovely little thing called WORK. I did work during High School (oh, the days at Hava Java *sigh*), but started working A LOT more post High School.

Throughout college I always had a least one job and when I look back, college was a complete whirlwind. I have no idea where those four years went between school, work and friends. Post college my work became my life. The jobs I had were essentially “lifestyle” jobs. There were so many learning experiences during these years and I wouldn’t change it even if I could. From 2008-2014, I definitely felt like I was going 100mph. Towards the second half of last year, I made a decision to change the pace in which I was going. It was a really hard decision, but it was something I needed to do for me. I’ll share more about that journey and what that looked like some other time 🙂

“Sometimes our stop-doing list needs to be bigger than our to-do list.” ― Patti Digh

More and more lately, I’ve been making a strong effort to PRIORITIZE more.

1. What on that To Do list really needs to be done?
2. What do I need less of?
3. What do I need more of?
4. Make time for the people and things that matter most – you never know when those things or people will be gone.
5. Thanking people more and letting people know how appreciated they are – regardless of how small the act may have been.

Do you find yourself going at 100mph? Do you think you need to reprioritize certain things in your life? At this very moment in time what are 5 days that you would like to revisit?