At the end of 2018, I watched Tyler Oakley’s “100 Things We Did in 2018” video. Since Tyler Oakley is famous, his video had a lot of big, magical moments in it, like competing in Fear Factor and being on the cover of a magazine. But it also contained many smaller moments and memories, like cooking a family dinner and making pancake art. Watching this video, it hit me.
Life really isn’t about the big things. The big things aren’t what makes up our everyday existence, and ultimately, they aren’t what brings us joy day-to-day. The little things are.
So I decided to create my own 100 Things project. All year long, I kept track of the things I was doing and accomplishing, both big and small.
I did a lot of things in 2019.
I’ve spent a fair bit of time (like, way too much time) putting together this slideshow over the holiday break, but the time was so, so worth it. Not only did I get to spend time reliving some of my favourite moments of the year, but I learned a lot about myself and my life. This project was even more powerful than I ever thought.
100 things is a lot
On one hand, 100 things is only one thing every 3 – 4 days, or 2 things a week. On the other hand, 100 things is a lot. When I finished my first draft of this list, I only had about 60 items. It took time, brain power, and patience to come up with the rest. And it took remembering that the little things matter. 100 large, major accomplishments would be a lot! But once I started including the little things, like baking birthday cupcakes, going to a book sale, and deleting my Netflix account, hitting that 100 mark got a whole lot easier.
Forgetting is easy
It’s so easy to forget about the meaningful moments in your life. I was so grateful that I wrote things down as they happened throughout the year, and that I had my bullet journal to look back on. Writing things down meant that I could easily remember what I’d done when the time came to put this slideshow together, but it also meant that I had the chance to revisit memories many times over the year, not just at the end. Now that the slideshow exists, it also means I’ll have the chance to revisit all these memories many times in the future!
The clump effect
100 things is approximately two per week. Except that’s not how it works. Things tend to happen in clumps, especially when it’s things related to vacations or conferences (which many of mine are!). Sometimes, life gets busy and time is spent doing the more mundane tasks of school readings, work projects, and literature reviews instead of fun, memorable things. A former me might have struggled with this, but I think I’m really coming to terms with the idea that there can be times for work, and times for fun, and as long as one of these times doesn’t go on for too long, that’s fine!
Taking things for granted
So much of life is made up of the things that you, at one time or another, decided were important and incorporated into your regular life. For me, soccer is one of those things, Friday night sports were another, and reading has always fit this category. Because these things happen so consistently, it can become easy to take them for granted and not consider them as ‘important things’ when reflecting. But the entire reason they exist so consistently is because they are important; my life would quite literally not be the same without these activities, and I am so grateful that they take up a large portion of my time!
So many people
This is the learning that I think surprised me more than anything else. So many people are involved in creating these moments and memories. From my family and friends to my work colleagues, the six different soccer teams I played with over the year, and the orientation professionals I met at various conferences, there are probably more than 100 people involved in these 100 things! I am so grateful to have them all in my life.
If you can’t tell, I loved this project. See you next year for the 2020 version!
Featured image by NordWood Themes on Unsplash