Giving Thanks: Learning to thrive in the mundane

Thanksgiving is an important time of the year to share everything people are thankful for. The Sidekick CHS9 editor Nyah Rama thanks her rigorous routine as a junior despite losing some of her free time. (Safiya Azam)

7:18 – Wake up.

8:10 – Get on the bus.

8:30 – Arrive at school and walk around with my friends.

4:45 – Arrive home (finally).

5:10 – Begin my homework.

10:10 – Take a shower.

11:30 – Get in bed and watch 20 minutes of “Modern Family.”

11:50 – Go to sleep.

Everyday, I wake up and find myself going through the same routine. Midway through the first nine weeks of school it hit me, why am I not bored yet?

Mere months ago my life was filled with constant chaos, everyday felt like a scene out of “Never Have I Ever,” my friends and family even called me Devi for a little while. Everyday there was constant drama, a funny encounter or something else completely insane that always gave me a story to tell my friends.

Slowly, things started to change. By the end of my sophomore year, my relationship with my best friend had become toxic but I could not let her go. What would I do without the constant instability of our relationship? Whose remarks would I overthink for hours? I wasn’t craving excitement, I was addicted to the instability that I had gotten used to. 

I began to realize that I didn’t feel comfortable in my daily life without something destabilizing happening around me. I could not live with the mundane day to day of life.

I vowed to change this over the summer. I ended that friendship and spent my summer learning how to adapt and practice self care. My summer was filled with internships, traveling and daily workouts that made me feel like a revived version of myself. I finally felt like I was becoming me, and with the advice of Coppell High School 2023 graduate Maya Palavali, I walked into junior year ready for whatever was coming.

Maya’s words echoed in my brain as I walked into my third period, “Why do you let someone have so much power over you?” 

To my surprise, nothing happened. The first day felt like any other and so did the next. I had fallen into a pattern, but I didn’t care that it was boring. I even enjoyed it a little. Now I most look forward to the hour I set aside for showering and the wave of relaxation flowing through my body as my head touches my pillow.

Junior year has made my life quite ordinary but I have learned to appreciate the smaller things as a welcome respite from the daily stresses of what seems to be a never ending slew of tests and homework. I have learned to thrive in the mundane.

Follow Nyah (@nyah_rama) and @CHSCampusNews on X.

Originally posted 2023-11-09 18:34:43.