Amanda Carrasco

The first day of the year everyone looks to the future. Such pregnant expectant questions like what will the year bring? I started by looking back. October 2017 to December 2018 has been hard. Harder than I every anticipated it to be, and it knocked me on my ass. We are all human and we all have our limits, I hit my wall.

I have felt like a car in a smash up derby that would keep getting hit but was of no consequence because its one tire was bashed in and the motor was barely running, but as long as you are in the arena and show some signs of life, they will still come for you. There has been new pain and old pain, because some pain never goes away fully, it just stays quiet for a while. I have just tried to hold on for dear life, clenching my teeth and every muscle in my body to make it to the end of the roller coaster. But something changed.

I wish I knew exactly what happened. I wish I knew a magic formula but something broke. Christmas eve I had a major anxiety attack and ended up back in bed in the morning. I laid there and could not figure out how I would get through Christmas. I processed for a while and then my daughter asked if she could do my makeup. We then had a dance party to Don’t Stop Believing by Journey in my bathroom. And something changed. I dont know if it was the makeup, the music, or just Christmas magic (and I really don’t like Christmas at all) but there was a shift. It’s like pistons started firing properly under my hood again. I knew I was going to make it.

Here I am on the other side of Christmas and it was not all good, but I made it and some parts were really awesome. Twice more anxiety tried to take me down and I looked that jerk in the face and said, “not now!” This is not to say that I’m cured or it won’t happen again but it’s like God is standing with Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones and my bones have started to come together. Next will be the tendons, then flesh, and finally spirit. All that matters is that it has started. The process of reclaiming me has started.

I often talk to my Upendo about One Day. Its a hopeful look into the future of what I want to come. Most people do this as a passive action, but that has never been me. I have never sat back and waited for life to happen, I went and happened to life. That is my plan for 2019. I am going to happen to the year. It’s my year to win. One day isn’t going to come because I am going to wait for it. One day is going to come because I will race to it, grab it by the throat, and make it kneel in front of me.  I can not control everything and I know there are going to be incredibly difficult times to come, but I am ready to face it all head on because I am amazing, I am God’s child, I am Amanda.

Hello 2019, I got your number. It’s time for One Day.