International Friendship Month and Last Month's Surprise

 Hello again!

 So, we've full circle again. It seems hard to believe that it's been a year since February (last year seems like it had several Februarys in it. Maybe that's just me, but I doubt it.), but here we are again.

 So, the month of love. Valentine's Day, hearts, candy, cards... Yeah. That's what most people think of this month, but February is also International Friendship Month, which is pretty great. I mean, an entire month devoted to celebrating friendship? Epic. 

I've got a few things brewing on the back burner of my mind. One is a post about friendship on the fourteenth of this month. The other is my Poetry 15th. I might do something besides the poem this month. It's still undecided.

I wanted to talk about something that surprised me last month. So, every month I take out my small corkboard that lives on my wall and paste inspirational quotes on it. Usually, I find these quotes from the page-a-day calendar at work or just things I see online that inspire me.

This past month I made a board inspired by one of my character's, Gianna Rosetti (more commonly known as Gia). Gia is a playful thief, pirate and amateur inventor, but while she has her flaws, her chief strength is that she really cares for her friends. She's the type of person who would chase you down and give you a hug. If you're sad, she wants to know why and how she can help you. She has an amazing amount of energy and a heaping dose of ADHD. 

I did not know why I wanted to do a Gia board, but I'm glad I did.

To give you an example of what my board looked like, I made a couple of collages on Canva with the quotes I chose that represented her. (There are two collages because I couldn't find an adequately sized grid to fit them all comfortably.)

This one:

And one more:

After I made this board, I proceeded into the month, hoping for the best, but wary. Just because it's a new year, doesn't mean that life will be all rainbows and cupcakes. And surprise, surprise... it wasn't.

About ten days into the month, I got panic attacks about every other day. I mean, they weren't anything like the ones I had a couple of years ago, but they were enough to keep me up at night worrying like it was going out of style. (Seriously, can the anxiety just leave already? Door is wide open, bud. Don't let it hit you.)

For those of you that write, do you ever feel like your characters speak into your life? Because I sure do. 

This past month, my Gia board inspired me to look beyond myself, to look for opportunities to help others. I know I'm not the only one who is struggling with anxiety or depression, but like John Green reminded me, "The world may be broken, but hope is not crazy."

I hope this is something that I can carry not just into this year, but into my entire life. I hope I can make someone smile, even when I feel like crying. When I feel like giving up, I hope I remember to "take life by storm." I want to remember that it's okay to be silly, even when I feel like the situation says I should be serious. I hope I can remember to "do all things with love", especially when I'm having a hard day and feel like curling up into a ball and shutting out the world. I hope I remember to be a friend, even when I feel like introverting.

Hope is not dead; it's merely a star in the sky. We must look up into the night and find it, and if we cannot find it, maybe someone else can. If someone cannot see hope, be the one to help them find it.