Weekly Mantra - The September Issue

With a one-two punch, summer is (almost) over.

My sister's face above (as we kid around at a wedding over the weekend) says it all. As another summer wraps up, I find myself complaining along with the rest of the "adults," that it went by too fast.

As a child, those two months felt like an eternity; the only event signalling the end of the season were trips to Staples (previously known as Business Depot) to buy school supplies with my sister and cousins. We'd insist on separate carts, and speed in and out of the aisles, selecting colourful pens, and binders (depending on our grade) and then watch our mothers' faces recoil in horror as the totals appeared on the cash screen.

"But I neeeeeeeeed those markers," one of us would whine, while the other kids would nod in agreement.



Although I'm no longer in school, September always brings upon that phantom feeling that something new is about to begin. It's the idea that we're going back to something. There is a sense of seriousness in this change. We get the message that it's time to put our socks back on, because no one trusts a man in flip flops.

Last year, I read Meg Jay's book, "The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter--And How to Make the Most of Them Now." I picked up the book after watching her Ted Talk "Why 30 is not the new 20". Her message is about the importance of making decisions about your life, and going after what you want. Basically, twenty-somethings aren't as young as they think, and things won't just magically fall into place if they don't get serious about their career, goals, and relationships.

Below is this week's mantra as per Jay.

"There is a certain terror that goes along with saying “My life is up to me.” It is scary to realize there’s no magic, you can’t just wait around, no one can really rescue you, and you have to do something. Not knowing what you want to do with your life—or not at least having some ideas about what to do next—is a defense against that terror. It is a resistance to admitting that the possibilities are not endless. It is a way of pretending that now doesn’t matter. Being confused about choices is nothing more than hoping that maybe there is a way to get through life without taking charge."- Meg Jay - "The Defining Decade"  

This mantra applies to all ages, no matter what stage you're in. It's a reminder, like the month of September that you can wait for things to drop from the sky, or you can do a rain dance to make it happen.

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