If you haven’t noticed already, there’s been a button at the top of my page for a year now, entitled “Quote of the Day (2014).” I’ve come back to my blog every day to add a quote to the page for the entire year. Part of me was skeptical that I could keep it up the entire year, while the other part of me wanted to prove that wrong. I succeeded.<\/p>\n
Anyway, chances are if I had a conversation with you during this past year, you’ll have made the list (and if you aren’t, don’t take it personally).<\/p>\n
I originally started the list because I wanted a way to keep track of what I did that particular day, the same way that people do “Picture of the Day” albums on Facebook, but with just snippets of speech that I happened to pick up during the day; rather than setting up an image for a picture, I would capture an idea as in its truest and basest form, as a quote. I wouldn’t have to be in a specific place to document this; I could be at home at the end of the, reflecting on what happened.<\/p>\n
Because of this, my original intent of the list was to capture quotes that made me laugh. What better way to record your day than with a hilarious quote? Eventually this got pretty tough (especially on days when I didn’t see or talk to people), so I began to write down quotes that made me think as well as ones that made me laugh.<\/p>\n
This gave me enough steam to go through pretty much the whole year, especially through the summer. It got difficult through the end of the year when I was going through a particularly hard part of my quarter and wasn’t paying as much attention to what people were saying. Even though I was prepared to give up on it, I’m pretty glad I perservered through to the end.<\/p>\n
Keeping track of quotes has helped me pay more attention to everything around me. Rather than just watching the world whiz by as I go through my daily routine, I’m forced to open my mind and ears even if I’ve spent the day staring at a screen. It forced me to open up conversations with people I wouldn’t necessarily have spoken to, just for a tidbit of their life. For a tidbit of their experiences expressed through their choice of response, word choice, or lack thereof. And if my quote wasn’t directly from a conversation I had, it would be something I read online or just a Bible verse. These were more rare, since it takes quite a bit of cleverness to create a single-sentence quote that says something substantial and makes complete sense without context.<\/p>\n
Before I ramble any further, I’d like to challenge you to do something similar. It doesn’t necessarily have to be quotes or pictures, but these are probably the easiest to do. And don’t be afraid of what you put on your list….I have zero consent of any of the quotes I’ve written down.<\/p>\n
Enjoy life, but pay attention to it.<\/p>\n
I hope 2015 will bring as much joy as 2014 did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you haven’t noticed already, there’s been a button at the top of my page for a year now, entitled “Quote of the Day (2014).” I’ve come back to my blog every day to add a quote to the page for the entire year. Part of me was skeptical that I could keep it up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n