"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." ~Annie Dillard

I had an instant connection with this quote, an instant lightbulb, an instant feeling of understanding.

I, Brooke Cichocki, have reached enlightenment.  I guess I'm done here.

I'm only kidding, but the impact that this quote had on me was immediate and powerful.  I'll tell you my story.

Photo Courtesy of Joshua Aguilar

Monday, March 27 was a cloudy, dry, cool day with a dull, sleepy kind of feel--one of those days you walk around campus and everyone you see is wearing sweatpants and your only interactions with classmates include, "huh, it's cloudy outside today."  I went to my classes, did my work, ate my meals, and wound up back in my dorm room at 10:00pm, planning Tuesday, March 28.  At that point, it occurred to me that I went through my entire day just going through the motions.  No specific moments stuck out as positive or negative, and I could hardly even remember walking home.

I went to bed, and woke up.  Tuesday, March 28.  The weather was the exact same, but the air had slightly more bite to it.  I went to class, did my work, ate my meals, and wound up back in my dorm room at 10:00pm, planning Wednesday, March 29.  At that point, it occurred to me that I went through my entire day just going through the motions.  No specific moments stuck out as positive or negative, and I could hardly even remember walking home.  Sound familiar?

Now, I decided I needed some serious motivation to get me out of my drab frame of mind.  Naturally, I turned to my handy, ever-present stack-o-quotes.  I flipped through a few, feeling utterly uninspired.  But then, I struck gold: 

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." --Annie Dillard.

Wow.

If you think about it, the quote is really simple.  Our lives are just made up of strings of days, after all.  Yet, we never seem to think of it in that way.  I always used to think that my days were some minuscule unit of time leading up to some big unknown event--maybe the day I graduate ,or get my first job, or have kids, or retire, or do anything noteworthy.  I used to tell myself "you win some, you lose some" and "bad days don't mean anything, I'll have a good day soon."  But now, somehow, it's different.

Photo Courtesy of Dafne Cholet

I lived Monday, March 27 and Tuesday, March 28 in limbo--not accomplishing, or failing, or discovering, or anything.  Those are two days of my life.  Sure, life is relatively long, but I spent at least 48 hours of it just "going through the motions."  How I spent those days was, at the time, how I was spending my life.  And I'm not okay with that.

I want to spend my life laughing and loving and achieving and realizing.  Of course, some days I'll be crying and wondering and hurting and losing.  But, on those days, I'll still be working towards the large, overarching goal of stringing all my days together to truly live a fulfilling life.

So, next time you're just going through the motions, notice it, and try your best to change it so that you can spend your life the way that you want to most.