Celebrate Your Wins!

I am back!!

It has definitely been a while since I have last written any posts on my blog. As you can tell, there have been some changes to my website and also layouts.

I know 2020 has been a whirlwind of emotions and changes, especially for me. The pandemic definitely reminded me that I did like working alone in my house rather than rushing out of the house and pretending that I was happy when ultimately I was not.

I’ll admit that I am still not 100% happy, but this past year has been a healing year for me.

I was also reminded not too long ago to celebrate my wins, whether they are small or huge. It was something that my mom said about not really sharing or celebrating her wins that reminded me that I struggle with as well.

Since March, one of my turtles laid about nine eggs and only three survived enough for me to make a DIY incubator to see if I could get them to hatch. So about 90 days later, two of three eggs hatched and I only told a couple of people.

I was so fixated on the of three that I believed I was a failure when it came to hatching the eggs. And I have to keep reminding myself that I literally created a bootleg incubator and got two eggs to hatch. How many people can say that who are not reptile specialists?

The lack of celebrating your wins can stem from either your parents not seeing that the big deal of celebrating something small or society itself. We live in a culture where it has to be something grand in order to be celebrated. And people who do not understand having a reptile as a pet or who are dog/cat people and do not understand someone’s enthusiasm of their cat/dog, will forever judge you and not care of the pet is not to their liking. And that is okay. It is not up to you to help them understand. You are allowed to celebrate whether they want to hear it or not.

Is it possible to hold space for people who have different passions than you rather than judge them or dismiss them because you just don’t understand?

It’s okay to be different. It’s okay to have passions that do not align with others. We all get to be who we choose to be and we do not have to conform to make others feel better.

** Side Note: Turtles and tortoises are not the same. Turtles are aquatic and only come on land to bask in the sun. Tortoises are land mammals and the oldest living tortoise in captivity is 189 years old and was hatched/born in 1832.

“Being normal is vastly overrated.” – Debbie Reynolds, Halloweentown movie.