What this pandemic has taught me

2020 is going to be one to remember. I think we can all agree on that. It seemed to start off so well, and then March rolled around and our lives were turned upside down. I had no idea that I would not be returning to school after Spring break. At first, it was just two weeks out of school and then we switched to all online. And this was tough. The life that I had grown so accustomed to was ripped away, and I thought that there was no possible way anything good could come from this. We were forced to stay home and away from our friends and family.

We were isolated.

And now I can't tell if things are starting to get back to normal or if this is just the new normal. Lately, I have noticed how fast things have gone by in my life. I mean I have one semester of college left, and it seems like just yesterday I was taking senior pictures in high school. I feel like I blinked and all of my college years are gone. Now, I have almost been married for four months. FOUR months... like what? That just blows my mind. And from what I have heard, things do not get any slower, but life just seems to go by even faster. All of this has been on my mind lately and it has just been a reminder that life is short and everything goes by so quickly. Because of this, I have learned that if I want to do something, just do it.

My husband is a huge Braves fan, and since we have dated I have begun to be a big braves fan, too. We have been watching almost all of the games this season together, mostly because we love the Braves but also because we have just missed sports. The other night I told Drew how much I would love to just be able to go to one of the games now. Whenever baseball season rolled around for the past three years, we have talked about how much we wanted to go to a game at the new park. We have only been to two games. And one of them was a spur of the moment because we were in the area and didn't have plans for that night. But, it's not like they are far away or very expensive. The first game that we went to only cost us about $25 for both of our tickets. And we had a blast! We kept saying, we have to go back soon! Or... I really want to go to the braves game this weekend. Or let's ask some of our friends to go to the game tomorrow, but we didn't. We would look at tickets all the time, but never actually just go. We made excuses for not going, and now I regret that. Now we literally can not go to a Braves game. And I wish we just would have gone to more games when we could. But, this is true for so many other things in my life. As funny as it may sound, this conversation really got me thinking about other times that I do this, and I realized that I tend to put things off until it's the "perfect time" and then its usually too late.

Growing up my family camped all the time. It was some of my favorite memories, and now a lot of Drew's family has started camping together. We went and visited a few times the past few months while they were camping, and so many memories flooded my mind. I remembered how much fun we would have just sitting around the campfires talking or being around the table playing Uno. I saw all of the younger cousins playing games together and riding their bikes and I felt like I was doing that with my cousins just a little while ago. Drew and I started talking, we said we wanted to buy a camper in a few years after I have had my job for a little while. But still... a few years. And I didn't want this turn into a Braves situation and we just end up never getting a camper, and then being like 70 years old and saying that we wished we would have bought a camper. So... I started looking at tents on Amazon. I have only ever tented camped for real one time and then a few other times in my backyard. I still remember how much fun it was and it's a whole lot cheaper than buying a camper! We still had a $50 gift card from the wedding, so we decided to use that to go towards a tent. We found the cheapest (and probably the smallest) one, and only had to pay $4 after the gift card. We borrowed an air mattress and some other things like chairs and a table from my mom. I found a spot on Airbnb that was only $15 a night and booked it for the next weekend! We didn't know what we were getting into, but we knew we would have fun just being together. We kept it simple and cooked hamburgers over our campfire one night and bratwursts the next night. And we had chips on the side. We stayed up late just talking around the campfire, and we woke up early and drank coffee together. It was simple and definitely not glamorous, but we had a blast. The whole weekend we kept saying how much fun we were having and that we were so glad that we did not put this off. We realized we didn't need to wait until a few years from now to make memories camping. It did not have to be in a fancy camper or have the best car to pull the camper, but we could do it with what we had now. We didn't have to have everything perfect or spend a lot of money before we started camping, and we loved it!

Don't wait for the "right time", because the time will never be right.

If you are anything like me, I always find excuses to not do things and put them off. Like the Braves games. But the truth is the things we want to do will not always be here. And the people we want to do those things with may not always be here either. Enjoy life while you can, and do things that make you happy with the people that make you happy. Have no regrets. There will always be something we could use as an excuse to not do what we have been wanting to do, and then it keeps getting put off. But, I am really going to try to stop living this way, because the time is never going to be perfect. I don't want years to go by wishing I would have done things that I could have easily done if I would have just made them a priority in my life. And I hope that you will find encouragement through this to make what you have been wanting to do a priority, too!

So, this pandemic has taught me to just do the dang the thing! Life is so short, and the years go by so fast. Whatever it is you have been wanting to do, make it happen. I know things are quite different right now and it's not possible to do a lot of things now with restrictions in place. But when things are back to normal, don't wait. If you have been wanting to go camping, get the basics and go! If you want to take a road trip, do it! If you have been wanting to take a cooking class, or go back to school, or learn how to play an instrument don't keep putting it off. Because there will come a day when you are not able to do the thing you have been wanting to. And that day could be next week. If what you've been wanting to do is too expensive or you don't have the money now, start saving for it today. Don't wait. And when you have met your goal, do it! I would have never thought this time last year I would not be able to go to a Braves game or fly for our honeymoon because of a Pandemic, but sure enough, that is our reality right now. And I wonder what I would have done differently if I would have known this? I would like to think I would have spent a lot more time with the people I love and making memories I will remember when I am old and gray. I think I would have put my phone down more and cut the TV off more. I think I would have stressed a little bit less about school and spent more time making the best of the situations the Lord has placed me in and blessed me with. You never know what life is going to throw at you tomorrow, next week, and even years from now. I have learned that each day is not promised. I do not know what tomorrow holds, but I do know that I need to live in the present and stop putting things off I have been wanting to do. And this doesn't have to be a trip you want to go on, but it could also be just as simple as face-timing a friend for the afternoon. Or ask a friend to get lunch. It could be starting your own blog or trying to mend an old relationship. Whatever it is that you have been putting off, I encourage you to make it a priority this week to do it or start making the steps to do it.

"Never forget yesterday, but always live for today. You never know what tomorrow can bring or what it can take away." -unknown

xoxo,

Madison