לעשות חיים | To Do Life

I want to have an honest moment with you all. I haven't blogged in a long time. There are many reasons for that. I'm too busy. I'm forgetful. I'm distracted. But I think the biggest reason I haven't been blogging is that I've been struggling. The past year has been a challenging one and it took my writing to dark places.

My blog is essentially about my life making Aliyah, and although I try to paint an honest picture, I do paint a story of positivity. That's not to say my experience isn't amazing. I still am (and probably always will be) amazed/inspired/in love with living in Israel everyday. But I don't want to discourage people with my hardships.

But I also struggle. I believe those struggles have more to do with being a young adult working through life's challenges than anything else. I struggle with work, trying to make ends meet, social anxiety, the need to take care of myself, dating...the list goes on. These struggles are not new, but it has taken me a lot of time to learn how to deal with them (and I'm obviously always still learning). I often let my struggles completely debilitate me from taking part in the positive things in life. I let them make me tired and lazy. I let them defeat me, even when most of the time I've actually overcome them. More than that; I've learned from them and grown immensely.

So here I am today, on my 26th birthday, and I'm looking at it all differently. It's like some lightbulb is finally illuminating how much I've actually grown from these struggles. I'm taking my life in my hands and moving forward with a new mindset. This year my mantra is to "Do life". לעשות חיים. Because I am here living on the earth and I should make it great.

Another year older, another year wiser. Here's to many more years of acquiring wisdom to come. Happy birthday to me!