How to Renew You!

What is something that you love to do?

Maybe it's partaking in a favorite hobby, eating a good meal, or taking time to catch up with some old friends. It can be anything really, as long as it's something you love. A small slice of the human experience that gives you a sense of peace and satisfaction.

Now, when was the last time you did that something?

If you simply Googled the word “renewal,” you would find that it’s “an instance of resuming an activity or state after an interruption.” It’s not a drastic transformation, a revolutionary reinvention of self, or even a simple change in routine. It is merely a return to form. Yet the idea of renewal calls to something very special. It’s not defined as a great change within yourself, but it CAN be if you want.

However, when was the last time you experienced a renewal? Let’s face it: it was probably for a streaming service, Patreon pledge, or some other online subscription. Nothing meaningful. Nothing personal. Nothing truly, deeply for you.

Even more likely, those rudimentary routine renewals might be the only ones that you have had lately. We are all busy people faced with a multitude of responsibilities and expectations. We can’t go and change everything about our identity on a whim. That’s okay. It happens. We lose the flair for the new, sticking to routine and habit. That excitement and ambition for what we could become are replaced by the acceptance and complacency of what we are now.

But at what point did those routines and habits begin? Did they replace something within us? Something more important? I’ve been asking myself all month about these things, pondering over what my next great blog post would be. Well, hopefully it will be my next great blog post.

For many people, it's easy to get lost in the norm. To burrow into the mundanity of life. But don’t get me wrong, routines can be great. Without routines, we likely wouldn’t do all that we do in a day, like going to work, attending school, and, for some of us, brushing our teeth. A routine life is a stable life. But a renewal has to be deeper than that. Renewals need to break the norm. It has to be a near soulful shift within yourself. Almost as if the idea of renewal was an evocative movement. That’s why you need to find AND achieve renewal in your life. So I ask you again:

What is something that you love to do?

And when was the last time you did it?

To achieve renewal, we have to see what part of our life we can regain. Something that we lost in one way or another. Be it due to our changing situations, new responsibilities, or a sudden spurt of instability. To best illustrate this, I think it's best to share a personal story. It’s a very recent struggle of mine to find and achieve my own renewal. A quick story about the writer that didn’t have the time to read.

Some background information first. I have spent the past few years studying English in university, as I previously discussed in this post here. That fortunate incident was one of the most significant transformations I have ever undergone. Since I was a young kid, I have been mystified by the written word. Its power and purpose in spreading ideas, information, and inspiration. My greatest pride has been in being able to pursue an education in this field. For me, I have always had this sense of awe with writing. The idea that anyone could express their thoughts, beliefs, and even specific perceptions about the world around them through pen and paper is fairly mind blowing. A great piece of writing is perceived as being elevated. Usually, we call this “classic literature,” like Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Writing also carries an immense sense of grandeur with it. Like it's some type of great undertaking. Which it is. Prose and poems to a skilled writer are like canvas and paint to a skilled painter. It can take an insane amount of dedication to write something truly grandiose. Even though I still consider myself an amateur writer, I am well aware of how much effort it takes to write. I’ve spent pretty much every weekend this year writing either a blog for my internship or an essay for a class. I even try to squeeze in a few words for my own personal projects from time to time. When you’re following a dream, you need to have dedication. The desire to always grow, to always become greater than who you are now.