PSA: Put Yourself on Your Plate... I Mean It

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I know I have written about my past experiences with what is now my social impact initiative, but to fully understand the meaning of why I am running this blog, you must know the updates on the Miss Southeastern Pageant that I am competing in come January. 

  I have seventy eight days until the  Miss Southeastern 2021 pageant. That's it. 78.... At first it was eight months, than not knowing if it was going to happen, and now... we are in the double digits and beginning mandatory meetings. My talent has improved, my interview answers have become more concise, professional and articulate. My dresses are almost done. It's almost showtime here in Hammond, America, and Lily Cate is almost ready to take the stage. 

There are fifteen contestants total.  One of them is one of my closest friends, I finally got her to compete. Competing with someone you know makes the experience so much better Which is nice. We had our first mandatory meeting on Friday, taking headshots. It's becoming a reality for me, knowing that I will be on that stage is going to be the best feeling I've ever experienced.

To go along with preparing for the pageant, a classmate of mine is doing a feature story on the Lifter's Project and my journey. My journey through this blog and preparing for the pageant has been eye opening and soul revealing in the last few months. Another thing that's eye opening for me right now is homework and class anxiety. 

As a senior in college, I have a lot on my plate. My routine is full of classwork, projects, job work, pageant prep, etc. I have five jobs to make ends meet, working through the night to make sure that my grades are still the As and Bs that I want. It's tiring and wears me down. I finally was able rest a little bit on Friday and realized how run down I am with everything that I do now. I also realized that it's okay to take a break for yourself. 

Don't let yourself become so run down that you don't take care of you. College life happens, jobs happen, and for some people, children happen and require so much of your strength, time and effort that you forget to take time for yourself. 

Not taking time for yourself will increase levels of anxiety, depression and self-loathing. This is not healthy for anyone. Make sure you take your time to breathe, take a bubble bath, go get your favorite food from somewhere downtown. It's okay to take care of yourself. You take care of everything else, it's time to take a breather. 

I never understood what it meant to take a breath, and honestly I still don't. I've been working on homework and actual work for about five hours now and it's SO draining. I also have my internship, work, class, and workouts, along with more pageant practice this upcoming week. I've got to double down since our fall semester is coming to an end. And I forget to take care of myself, I haven't cooked a meal in God knows how long. I eat snacks right now, and healthy cereal to make sure I get the adequate amount of calories in to sustain myself. I have so many things that are on my plate: jobs, homework, apartment work etc. But I also need to put me on my plate too because if I don't take care of me, then I can't take care of everything else that I need to take care of. You're not being lazy if you take an hour long bubble bath, you're not extra if you go get your nails done once a month. If that's how you take care of yourself, then that's how you take care of yourself. 

I take care of myself in several different ways. I am a Christian, so I go to church, I meditate before bed, I go to a bible study every Monday. I workout until I feel destressed and take a bubble bath whenever my body hurts. I listen to Hamilton non-stop (haha Hamilton pun) when I'm happy because I LOVE Broadway. These are the ways I destress. And I don't let people tell me that I'm being lazy because that's how I take care of me. 

How do you take care of yourself when you're stressed out? Comment down below! I'll see you all next blog! If any of you have any ideas or suggestions on what you want me to write about next, let me know and DM me on Instagram! If no one's told you this lately: you matter, I'm proud of you, and you're beautiful. 



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