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At the age of twenty-four, I’ve learned to lean into hope now more than ever, due to the countless situations in which hope is all I have to hold on to. And I’m grateful for each one, good or bad because every moment is integral to my journey. After each testing situation, I repeat to myself, “I hope I’ve learned my lesson. I hope I can grow from this.” To me, having hope means I want a better outcome for myself the next time around. I want to have healed, and make my next move my best move. I don’t get up each day to be just okay, I get the privilege to wake up and be better.

 

Leaning into hope looks different every time I’m required to do it. Leaning into hope means leaning into myself and into the power I hold to direct my own actions. I’m leaning into the best version of myself I can imagine. My job is to, as cliché as it sounds, “keep hope alive,” and keep trusting myself to produce better outcomes. In the latter part of 2019, my hope was leaning into healing. Healing from poor decisions, and healing from grief. Grief over situations which I didn’t know at the time, could no longer serve me.

 

The best piece of advice I have received in my twenties thus far is “heal your own scars before you bleed on others . . . And give yourself permission to take as much time as you need to heal.” For the next year of my twentysomethings, I am giving myself permission to remain even more hopeful. Even though hope is focused on future opportunities, it changes us in the now. It shifts our present mindset and how we move through life and allows us to think further than our current circumstances. I’m only scratching the surface of my twenties, and I have no idea what’s in store, but I will be leaning into hope every step of the way.