Author: benjancewicz

Questions from Melony Hill’s Writing for My Sanity Therapeutic Writing Workshop (@STMSBmore), held online.

• What have been your top 3 challenges in the past 6 months? Are you happy with how you handled/are handling them? If not, what could you/would you have done differently?

I think the most challenging thing I dealt with was the uncertainty around my house. Nothing else really came close to that.

Shellpoint, my mortgage company, was threatening to foreclose on me, and kick me out of my house, and I didn’t really know what to do. They kept sending me more and more threatening letters, which compounded everything I owed up, until the Unpaid Amount I owed was over $40,000, more than the house is even worth.

I had gone into bankruptcy to try to delay the foreclosure process, but the bankruptcy was now over, and they were clawing for their money. There was no way I could possibly pay $40,000. I didn’t know what to do.

My bankruptcy lawyer told me not to worry, that because my mortgage was included in my bankruptcy, they could not go after me for the house, and that I could just walk away whenever I was kicked out.

I didn’t really want to be kicked out, but I just did my best, and started packing a box every month or so in preparation for the inevitable.

Although this was really stressful and definitely added to my anxiety, it also gave me a sense of peace and something to do about it, instead of just sitting and waiting for the sheriff to show up at my door.

Surprisingly, Shellpoint sent me a modification to the mortgage at the 11th hour. It’s a terrible modification; a balloon mortgage (which means I would pay a gigantic lump sum at the end of the life of the mortgage), but it does mean that if I make monthly payments, I can stay.

What did I do? I was patient, and prioritized my own peace, and promised myself I would roll with whatever punches that came. I think I did pretty well. Now I am in a place where I can come and go on my terms.

• How well do you take care of and nurture yourself? What is your self-care routine like?

Lately, I’ve been working on a morning routine that I do when I don’t have to rush off somewhere, which is about half of my days roughly.

I get up, without guilt for however long I did or didn’t sleep.

If it’s a day I don’t have Karate, I’ll do a short workout.

I’ll take my temperature, weight, and take a hot shower.

I’ll light some incense, turn on some guided meditation, stretch in honour of my grandmother, and do some breathing exercises.

I’ll water and check on my plants.

I’ll freshen up, take care of my skin, and get dressed.

I’ll make myself a hearty breakfast, feed Auta and change her litter, and tidy up the kitchen while I listen to big band music.

• What are your top priorities in 2021? What things are you
determined to achieve this year?

I want to learn to surf! Even if I can’t travel, I’m going to drive out to Ocean City and take classes.

I can’t afford one on my own, but I want to buy a jetski with friends of mine.

I want to go camping at least once a month once its warm enough to do so. I have everything I need to do it, I might as well.

During the summer, I want to go to the beach every other week.

I would love to get my business back to the point where I can hire someone again.

I want to publish my first book. I want to get the rough draft for my second book done.

I want to see my parents.

• When was the last time you felt the need to assert your
boundaries with someone? How did feeling the need to assert
them make you feel? How did the person handle it?

I recently had to tell someone specifically how they had let me down, and hadn’t been there when I had needed them.

I felt awful about doing it, even bringing up the topic felt really terrible to me. But I knew that I had to be open and honest about how I felt, and if they did not respect those boundaries and me asking for what I needed, then they might not be good to have around.

They reacted in a way I totally did not expect, with tenderness and apologies, and promising to do better next time. I had been bracing myself for admonishment and for defensiveness, but it never came.

Questions from Melony Hill’s Writing for My Sanity Therapeutic Writing Workshop (@STMSBmore), held online.

• Am I self-disciplined? How can I motivate myself more to accomplish the things I want to do?

I am pretty disciplined about doing work, but I am not great when it comes to prioritizing. I can be very disciplined about steaming through a project, but trying to pick if a certain project is more important than another project is a lot harder for me.

The best solution I’ve come up with is trying to set aside more dedicated time for me to work, and making time for more work so that I can achieve all I set out to do.

• Am I exploring and experimenting enough in my life? How can I be more
adventurous and try something new?

I really feel like life has been a bit boring lately, but as I’m working through some anxiety and depression, those boring routine things can help with stability. I do exploring a bit on my own, going out to explore abandoned buildings or exploring parks and forests. Those are moments of peace for me, they ground me and bring me back to center.

I’m hoping I can be more adventurous once I can travel again.

• What is a recent failure or mistake I have made? What have I learned from it?

My son Arion has started therapy recently, and I have had a couple meetings with his therapist. It’s made me realize that some of the ways I parent him aren’t always the best.

Sometimes I’ll put pressure on him to get things done that just don’t really work with his personality. He needs time to relax and calm down, just like I do. Also, he does well with lists, but has trouble keeping everything that he has to do in order in his head. So encouraging him to get things done step by step and writing them down has been helpful.

I’m grateful I’m learning these things now, so that I can learn to be a better parent.

• What are my hobbies? What is it about my hobbies that I enjoy?

My hobbies are drawing, writing, photography, music, martial arts, and riding motor vehicles like snowmobiles, motorcycles, and jet skis. I’ve not really had a chance to ride horses, but I think I’d like that too.

I think for the first ones, I love the creation of things. For the last ones, I love the movement. I love the wind in my hair, I love seeing new horizons, working my body. I think distilled down, those two things are the most important to me. If I can create or if I can move, I’ll probably enjoy it.

Questions from Melony Hill’s Writing for My Sanity Therapeutic Writing Workshop (@STMSBmore), held online.

• When was the last time you cried? Have you healed from that experience? If not, what will help you move forward?

The last time I cried was during a movie, I teared up at the end of Rogue One. The kids and I have been working through every Star Wars movie. I know it’s not super significant and earth-moving, but I think it’s important to remain sensitive, and if you feel sad, to let it out. It always feels good to recover from crying.

• Name 3 fictional characters that remind you of yourself. Why do you resonate with them?

Cliff Secord from The Rocketeer. I relate to him just because he always tries to do the right thing, is passionate, caring, but he’s also kind of goofy. He trips over himself, makes clumsy mistakes, but makes up for it in heart.

Frank Hopkins from Hidalgo. Frank is someone caught between different cultures. He is half white, half Sioux. To survive in the growing whiteness of America, he has to hide a lot of his heritage and background, while still honouring both sides of himself. He then travels halfway around the world, and finds he can connect with the Bedouins, and anyone he chooses to open up to.

Chiron Harris from Moonlight. Chiron’s sensitivity and pain are something I related to, as well as his healing around food and water. I had a difficult childhood as well, and both his moments of peace and rage felt very familiar to me. How he was reminded to reopen that sensitivity felt similar to how I’ve felt lately.

• What qualities do you think your friends admire most about you?

This hasn’t always been able for me to see, but as I learn to love myself, I am learning more and more what those things are.

I am kind and generous, sensitive and strong, reliable and funny, courageous and passionate, deep keeled and consistent, and very very open.

• What has become more important to me in the last month? What has become less important?

My appreciation for being home has become more important to me. I think the constant need to be out and be around people has become less important. Instead, I’m investing more in specific people instead of groups, and I’m learning to have a deeper appreciation for being alone.

Questions from Melony Hill’s Writing for My Sanity Therapeutic Writing Workshop (@STMSBmore), held online.

Note: I noticed the Mailchimp hasn’t been working for a few months, so if this is the first email you’ve gotten in a while, that’s why. I have been writing, and you can see an archive here.

• Other than money, what have you gained from work?

Working taught me a lot of things. When I was little, I go over to ᓄᒧᓱᒻ Tommy Einish’s cabin, and he would give me a 1$ coin for chopping firewood. When I became a teenager, Oksana Choulik hired me to paint the ageing McGill Subarctic Research Station. She paid me well, but the work was really hard, and my shoulders and back ached every day. I got an allowance from my parents when I was young, and always managed it reasonably well, but the hard labour really showed me how much each dollar was worth. After I started working, I held on to money a little more instead of spending it so easily.

When I worked my first design job at Huggins Printing after I graduated college, my boss, Chris Gustin, knew I was building Zerflin on the side, so he shared a nugget of advice that I never forgot: He told me to put aside 30% of all profits in a savings account for taxes, and put aside another 10% in a different savings account for emergencies with the company. It has helped me so much.

• Of all living people, who would you most like to have a three-hour dinner with?

This is a really tough question, because I am missing so many people in the middle of this pandemic. So I might as well just list them.

I’d love to have dinner with my parents. It’s been so long since I’ve seen them, and it really hurts to be so disconnected from them. I had plans to see them more than usual beginning in 2020 because I wanted to make sure I was joining them on trips to my home village. Instead, I haven’t even been able to visit them in their home in Ontario.

I’d love to have dinner with my ex-girlfriend Marilyne. We’ve remained really good friends, and still have a lot of love for each other. I would just love to see her and spend time with her again.

I want to have dinner with my best friend, Ayinde. I haven’t heard from him for a while now, and I worry about him. Communication seems to have gotten worse with the pandemic. It’s strange because even though there is more actual time to do things, daily life’s exhaustion is also heightened, making it harder to plan and connect. I think I’ll make it a point to send him a Marco Polo this week.

• How would your parents describe you? Were they accurate?

My parents have described me in a bunch of different ways. When I was young I remember my mom describing me as both conniving and recalcitrant (on two different occasions), because I had to look up what the words meant in our giant dictionary. I don’t think those were meant to be positive; at least I didn’t take them as positive at the time. It stung once I figured out what they meant.

Today, I wear the recalcitrant badge with honour; I question authority at every step, and make sure that the authority has the best interest of the people in mind.

Lately my parents have described me in much more positive ways. They have talked about how they’re proud of me, and those kinds of things help to heal old hurt. But also, growing into myself and learning to define myself and who I want to be has helped as well.

Questions from Melony Hill’s Writing for My Sanity Therapeutic Writing Workshop (@STMSBmore), held online.

• What was your biggest fear as a child? What is your biggest fear as an adult? Are they connected in any way?

When I was a kid, I was afraid of a lot of things. But, I was afraid of letting people down the most. I didn’t want my parents to not be proud of me. I wanted my teachers to be proud of me. I wanted my friends to know I was loyal to them. I even remember crying when I lost a stuffed raccoon that I used to carry around everywhere, because I felt like I had let him down.

As an adult, those fears carry over. I don’t like the idea of not being there when my friends need me. I try to be the best romantic partner I can be, the best parent I can be, the best business owner I can be, and really try hard to hold myself to a high standard.

This means that sometimes I have trouble letting go and relaxing. It feels like there’s always something I should be improving or getting better.

It also means that whenever someone does compliment me, it melts me into a puddle. My father told me he was proud of me after watching an online art opening that I had this week, and it meant so so much to me. Because I’m so hard on myself, any bit of gentleness from people deeply affects me.

• Is there anything that gives you overwhelming anxiety? How do you control it?

I fear getting ground up in the gigantic machine that is the United States. Failing at my business and getting sucked under with taxes and bills. Being chewed up by an unjust incarceration system or abused by the police. I fear the ever-present violence that surrounds me; it feels both reminiscent of home, but I also know it’s traumatic to constantly be in. I fear raising my kids here, and worry about how it’s affecting them.

This is how I control it. Journaling, being in this class. I control it with therapy. I control it with meditation and going outside into the woods. Sometimes I control it by sleeping more.

• What are some of your goals for the year? What obstacles stand between you and accomplishing them?

I want to get on top of my taxes. I don’t want them hanging over my head anymore. I want to save for travel, so that when things do open up, I can just go. I want to learn how to invest properly. I want to set up proper retirement accounts so that I don’t have to worry about it in the future.

Most of these are finance related. My biggest obstacle before was knowledge and not knowing enough and not being connected enough to the people with the knowledge, but late last year I fired my accountant and hired a new one. I’m working through it with a new amazing accountant, which I’m excited about.

• If you had fewer inhibitions, how would you behave differently? Be specific.

I don’t feel like I have very many inhibitions anymore, and I am very much myself in very raw ways. I think what I’m working on now is twofold: looking at what I can do with the way I am, and learning to the aspects of myself that I want to expand on and grow. I feel like now is the time for nurturing and planting.

• What are some of your most prized personal possessions? Why are they so important to you?

I think probably my photos. Photos of myself when I was a kid, photos as a teenager, photos of my children. They help remind me of where I was, where I am, and where I can go.

Questions from Melony Hill’s Writing for My Sanity Therapeutic Writing Workshop (@STMSBmore), held online.

• How can you make your daily life feel easier? Think of your daily morning and after work routine as well as your workday.

I’ve actually already been thinking about this a bit this week. I placed my first online order for groceries this week, which arrives tomorrow.

It’s been snowing and icy here, and nearly all of my outside obligations have been cancelled, and they kids are with their mother this week. So, I don’t really have to leave the house.

I’ve been doing this elaborate process every other week for groceries, bundling up, spraying down grocery carts, and avoiding people in the aisles. And it takes up so much time. From driving to the store, parking, gathering everything, driving home, and then storing everything, it sometimes takes up to 3 hours of my day.

If it goes well, I’m going to try doing it more. If I order more than $35 of food, the delivery is free.

• Do you spend more time being busy or being productive? What’s the difference to you? What does your life look like when you’re being productive?

I have found that purposefully choosing time to relax or exercise has been helpful. With my work, the list of things to do is neverending, because even if I finish my client work, there are mountains of personal projects, artwork, and improvements I could always be making.

So, if I say I want to go out for a walk for the sunset, or watch a TV show before bed, or set aside time to read, it provides a bookend to my working time, and forces me to focus on getting things done in that time.

I haven’t done it in a while, but streaming my design work also helped me to be more productive too, because I would have people watching me. It keeps me from goofing off on social media.

• In what ways are you numbing yourself or checking out of life? Drinking, shopping to excess, using food as comfort? Why do you do it? What could you replace it with?

I don’t think I’ve been checking out enough, honestly. I think that this is one of the reasons my anxiety has been so high lately. I don’t have enough ways to unwind.

I’ve been trying to go out for walks and watching Peaky Blinders, but lately the weather has been cold and wet, and Peaky Blinders is not a very relaxing show (even though it is entertaining).

I think I should go out in my Element more often. I’ve got everything I need to just work in remote locations, so it might be good to change the scenery and just be out in a place to sit and draw.

Questions from Melony Hill’s Writing for My Sanity Therapeutic Writing Workshop (@STMSBmore), held online.

• Do you feel like you know your purpose in life? If so, what is it? If not, is there anything holding you back from discovering your purpose?

I feel like I am ultimately here to bring peace. To make spaces for it, to magnify it, to grow it Peace is what I seek, what I thrive in, where I feel most at home.

However, I recognize that peace is not accessible for everyone, and I don’t think that this is right. I believe everyone should have the right to access peace, and that oppression needs to be removed in order for that to happen.

This sometimes means that systems and norms and traditions have to be disrupted and changed and abolished for that to happen.

• Are there areas of your life that you notice you compare yourself to others? Why do you feel you do this if so? How does the comparison make you feel?

I find it very hard to not compare myself to others, constantly, about everything.

Learning “mindfulness”, the art of being in the present moment, has helped, because most of the time I am not around people to compare myself to. But sometimes it still creeps in.

I think I use comparison to try to understand the world and what is happening to me. Sometimes life just doesn’t really make sense, so I try to compare myself to others just to get my bearings. I think this kind of comparison was built into my upbringing too. My parents, my teachers, everyone around me would constantly compare me to other people who were doing things better or worse than I was, and so now it feels habitual.

I don’t like the comparison at all. It makes me feel inadequate a lot of the time, and makes me second guess my actions rather than letting me be sure of myself.

I feel like my default is to be sure of myself, but the comparison gets in the way of that.

• How is your relationship with money? How were you taught about finances and budgeting? What would your life look like if your relationship with money were different?

I actually think my relationship with money is pretty good. I save a lot, and once I have a set of rules to follow about setting aside money for certain things, I do pretty good with.

I think the frustrating thing for me is that I do not always know the wisest decisions to make with money. For example, I was given the advice of buying property right as I got married, so I bought the house I currently live in. That turned out to be just a couple of months before the economic recession, and the house has been underwater ever since.

I have learned recently that it would have been better for me to let go of the house right away, but because I didn’t know that, I held onto it.

A lot of my knowledge of money came from my Mom, who is a shrewd business person. She thrives on finding good yard sale and thrift store deals, and prides herself in making a dollar stretch. We played Monopoly endlessly when I was kid, which taught me a lot about managing money and resources… but also was extremely traumatic to lose over and over.

We were very poor, though I did not know this until I got to high school. That comparison came into play, where I would see other kids wearing Nike and Adidas and FUBU, which made my homemade clothes my mom had stitched together feel insignificant and comical.

My Father’s approach to Monopoly was very different from my Mother’s. He freely gave to all of us on the board. He would give breaks on rent, and was generous with his resources. If someone needed something, he would just give it to them, or trade it for next to nothing. He almost never won because of it, but it showed me that there was another, kinder way to handle money as well. A way that could help everyone.

Though I still struggle with money just because I don’t have very much of it, I still manage what little I have well. The biggest thing I could learn is how to plan things better so that the money I do have will work better for me.

Questions from Melony Hill’s Writing for My Sanity Therapeutic Writing Workshop (@STMSBmore), held online.

• What are my top 5 strengths? What are my top 5 weaknesses? How do I limit myself?

I’m very good at making new friends. I’m talented at inventing creative solutions. I can make a design client out of anyone. I am compassionate and will think of things on multiple dimensions and how they affect different people. I am very calm and strong in high-stress chaotic situations.

I’m pretty bad at time management. I definitely take on way more than I can handle. I am forever wondering if people actually like me, or if they are just keeping me around the usefulness of my strengths. I tend to get obsessed over small details, falling down rabbit holes of research and studying things, rather than pausing and getting the necessities done. I can become completely involved in my projects and forget to take care of myself.

I tend to limit myself in leadership roles, because I believe there are better-qualified people, and find myself more comfortable working in the background.

• What am I passionate about? Does my current career allow me to feed that passion? How can I incorporate my passion into my daily life?

I’m definitely passionate about drawing and art. While I’m not a place where that can support myself solely through artwork, I run my business so that it is a patron of my artistic endeavors.

A lot of businesses give gigantic corporate sponsorships. M&T Bank Stadium, the Royal Farms Arena, for examples. They use the events that are hosted there as advertising for their business.

I do that on a much smaller scale with my design agency. My business is able to sponsor my artwork along with my Patreon supporters and helps me get the more expensive things that I need to make my art, as well as promote it.

Because I’m investing back into myself, my artwork has slowly become more and more profitable. While that is not the goal of creating art (I would make it whether I made money or not), I find that I am much freer at making art when I have less stress around paying bills.

Hopefully I’ll eventually be able to do it full time.

• Do you ever underestimate yourself? If so, name a time where you underestimated yourself and why you did it? How did the situation turn out?

I used to underestimate myself a lot. I did not have confidence in my abilities or myself, to the point where I felt like it became a core part of who I was. My whole elementary and high school experience felt like a continuous set of missed opportunities and shyness.

When I went to college, I realized I could reinvent myself, because nobody knew who I was. So I did. I focused on not letting things bother me, and letting stress and troubles roll off my back. And it worked. I was happier, freer. I developed an aloofness that gave me peace, allowed me to make friends easily, and helped me to let go of the baggage that I held on to from my youth.

However, though I was more relaxed, I still didn’t value myself highly. I attributed my new friendships and connections to that relaxed happiness and to my loyalty to people. The people I was around followed a flavour of religion that emphasized an extreme version of humility that essentially made you avoid any and all compliments or praise, and I subscribed to that.

It wasn’t until I began therapy that I even realized I had a chronic habit of underestimating my value all the time. Slowly working through that and realizing my own self-worth has led me to value myself much more.

• Is there anything in your life that you are ashamed of? What steps can you take to put that shame behind you?

Over apologizing is the main way that my shame manifested, and at some point, someone pointed out to me that over apologizing for things was the way mistreatment and abuse showed symptoms. There isn’t much I’m ashamed of anymore. I don’t find shame to be useful anymore. So every time I catch myself apologizing for things that aren’t my fault, or that I have no control over, or for things that have nothing to do with me, I recognize that as shame, and let it go.

Questions from Melony Hill’s Writing for My Sanity Therapeutic Writing Workshop (@STMSBmore), held online.

• What is the one thing that people always misunderstand about you. What is reality?

I really find that depending on where people come into contact with me, they’ll misunderstand different things about me.

If they know me from Twitter, they’ll know me as this militant white guy who cares about dismantling white power structures, Black and Brown movements, criticizing capitalism, fighting homophobia and transphobia, feminism, and resisting fascism.

If they know me from Instagram, they’ll know me as a rather quiet artist and photographer who stands back, observes, and creates.

If they know me from protesting, I find that they don’t see as a creative or a romantic or a sexual person.

If they know me from designing with Zerflin, they don’t see my artwork.

But I find that with the Stronger Than My Struggles group, things are a lot more balanced. I find that my very closest friends are the ones who take the time to learn the different things about me and appreciate and put them all together.

I think that all this stemmed from when I was just on Facebook and Twitter. My Facebook was full of my family, the people from my community, and my former church. My politics had definitely shifted while I was in college, my faith grew deeper when I joined my new church, and my outlook on relationships and love expanded during and after my divorce. Twitter felt like more of a blank slate where I could be the person I was becoming.

My platform grew unexpectedly as I got more involved in the #FreddieGray and #BlackLivesMatter protests, and I felt this obligation to use the space to uplift other people and the people around me who didn’t get as much attention, but also to talk in a certain way. To perpetually be “on” about all these major protest issues. These protest issues and things we must fight against ARE important, but I’m also a whole person. I purposefully also make sure that I’m talking about other things that matter to me, from art, to writing, to design, to relationships, to religion.

The other part of it is that in previous relationships and friendships, I have been told that I was “too much”. And so I would diminish certain parts of myself just to be palatable. I’ve made significant gains on that, and it’s still a process.

I am working on being all of me, everywhere.

• Are you holding onto something that you need to let go of before the new year? What can you do to help yourself let go?

I’m not letting go of anything! I really feel like 2020 took so much from me, that I had to create and imagine things for myself to replace what was taken.

For example, 2020 was supposed to be the year that I began exploring the Caribbean. But the pandemic had other ideas.

At first I was really depressed about not being able to do all the things I planned, but then I shifted. I made it my mission to explore as many beaches in Maryland as I could, and built in meditation and workout routines that worked for me.

I’m not letting go of those things, they were really good for me.

• What’s the most important thing you have to get done or focus on in January?

Peace.

Questions from Melony Hill’s Writing for My Sanity Therapeutic Writing Workshop (@STMSBmore), held online.

• Has your character and humanity been forged more by pleasure and success, or by pain and disappointment?

I really do believe that who I am and my base character was forged from the loving environment my parents afforded me. It gave me the space to daydream, to be tender, to be open about some things, and to grow and learn in things I was interested in.

However, I think my humanity was forged from the pain I experienced, the bullying, the tragedies of losing classmates and loved ones around me, of watching things I cared about being destroyed, and from being lonely.

The contrast between those two things helped me understand that the world did not have to be a place of tragedy and that people could do something about it and have influence over it. And it informs much of the way I operate in the world today.

• In my relationships, am I always digging deeper or am I always settling for mediocrity. Give yourself examples of how you do either.

I think I am constantly digging deeper into people I’m interested in, and sometimes I feel like that’s a barrier to dating casually.

I’ll be sitting with someone, getting to know them, and my mind will be racing trying to figure out what this person will be like 10-15 years in the future. I try to figure out how they are with kids, how sensitive they are, what they think about feminism, where they fall politically, how they talk to the waiter who’s coming up to us, how they are with money, how the deal with conflict…

And because of the trauma that I’ve been through, I inevitably start to worry about how things would go if our relationship begins to deteriorate. I worry about how we’ll fight. How she’ll try to hurt me if she’s angry. How it will hurt when we’re not talking anymore.

All of these things come crashing into my mind instead of taking things as they are, instead of relaxing and being in the moment, instead of just being.

It’s very hard. But I’m working on it.

• How do I respond to situations that force me to step out of my comfort zone? When was the last time I had to? How did I handle it?

This is interesting, because most of the time I force myself out of my own comfort zone. I enjoy doing that, and pushing myself so that I grow in ways I know I need to work on.

However. When I get pushed out by some other force, I don’t always deal with it well. At my base, I’m stubborn. And because I am already pushing myself, something or someone else pushing me sometimes feels like stretching me beyond my breaking point.

• What is the lie you tell yourself most often? What is reality? Why do you tell yourself this lie?

The lie that I tell myself most often is that things are not as bad as they are.

I choose this lie on purpose.

The reality that things are terrible and that life is hard and that everything is stacked against me succeeding would devastate me. Things ARE terrible. Life IS hard. A lot IS stacked against my success.

But, there are other things in life. There are little things that are beautiful, there is joy, there is love, there are friendships, there is passion. And those things make going through the terrible hard things worthwhile.

There is science that shows that hopeful people actually succeed more. There is something about hope that is infectious, not just for those around you, but for yourself too. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Making room for hope allows you to experience it.

Telling myself the lie that these beautiful things exist even when I don’t see them at the moment allows me to be open to them. So that when they do show up, I can still recognize them, and not still be stumbling around in the dark.

• What activities cause you to feel like you are living life to the fullest? How often do you do them?

I try to exaggerate and magnify all the things about any situation just to help me enjoy wherever I am. Right now, I cannot do my most favourite things. Travelling, being around people, hugs… But I can’t. So I have to make small things bigger.

Right now; it’s the golden hour. A brief 40 minutes where the sun sets and casts everything in gold. It feels wonderful. I’m drinking this amazing draft latte that found that tastes great, and is keeping me awake. I love both Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill, and they played back to back. I’m typing on a brand new keyboard that I bought for myself. I have a small heater next to me, and it’s keeping me toasty and warm. God is everywhere, and in all these things.

By noticing all the little things around me that make me happy, it helps me to live every moment with as few complaints and regrets as I can.

Even in annoying situations, like waiting for my number to be called at the DMV, I’ll try to find something to appreciate about it. When I’m standing in line and waiting for my ticket, I’ll notice with every step forward, my situation is just a little bit better. When I finally have my numbered ticket and I’m waiting on those plastic chairs to be called up, I’ll be thankful that I’m sitting and can rest my feet.

I try to be grateful as much as I can.

• What stands between you and complete happiness? What can you do to close the gap?

I think I’m actually pretty happy. There are some circumstantial things that would likely make things better and make me happier, but for now I’m taking pretty good care of myself and my happiness.