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The Downtown Kid
  • tall blocks that spell out thank you

    Day 16: Thanks, Kid.

    I know you feel stuck, Kid; you’re fighting what feels like an impossible fight and you’re not gaining any ground. I know you had big dreams based on bigger promises and all that’s crashing down around you. You feel helpless and out of control. I know it hurts to breathe and you can’t imagine the new world order in front of you. I know your heart’s been broken so many times you’ve lost count. But thank you. For choosing to look past treatment that shook you to the core and challenged what it meant to love another person greater than yourself. Hell, for dealing with things that challenged you to…

  • man celebrating

    Day 14: Proud

    “Write about what you are most proud of in your life right now.” Proud? Oi. The Struggle Bus So I’ve been struggling with the blogging challenge the past few days. Day 10 was to share a favorite soup recipe, but I don’t use recipes. Best I can tell you is go to Bardog and get the soup of the day because they’re all amazing. #LobsterBisque Day 11 was to share a story post about my favorite thing I did last summer. When I read that, I laughed. I spent last summer learning (read “struggling like hell”) to appreciate the quiet. That was agonizing. On day 12, it was to write…

  • Day 9: Dear Future Husband

    Blogging challenge: Write an encouraging letter to your parents, spouse, or children. Challenge indeed. Not married. No kids. Don’t really wanna delve into the parent thing. Funny how a topic that seems so simple and innocent is going to be the one that gives me the hardest time. I have no plans to birth things, so there’s no writing an encouraging letter to that future teenage daughter whose heart’s just been broken for the first time. I’d very much suck at this conversation anyway. Best I’ve got is “Get used to it, kid.” Maybe not the best route. As far as my folks, well… Spouse? Negative. While I’ve had a…

  • Day 8: Doing Life Better

    For many, the new year is all about trying to live better, fuller, happier, whatever-er. We pretend we can reset the system. And as much as I wish we could just start some things over, we can’t. So we’ve got to be real about where we are and create tangible plans for where we want to go. Today’s blogging challenge is to make a list of five ways we can take care of ourselves. While most people are focused on how to improve the physical around this time of year, I’d like to take a look at how to improve the mental. 1. Be in the Moment Anxiety is no…

  • Day 7: Lessons from 2018

    Today’s blogging challenge is to take a look at lessons learned from 2018 through a course, book, social media, article, or website. And that’s hard. I feel like I learned so much from last year. So how can I pick one thing? There are books and experiences galore, but one of the most impactful things I did was for a presentation in group therapy. I worked with another woman to share the enneagram, and if you’ve never heard of the Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (RHETI), it’s kind of like a more scientific Myers-Briggs. Tons of corporations use this tool to manage their people and projects more efficiently. On a personal…