What brings you joy? Well, we all know that it surely was not 2020. Unfortunately, the past year+ of pandemonium has left a cloud hovering over many people. Between the obvious big “C” word, controversial topics, and politics, things were pretty heavy. Even now, as people are attempting to get their lives back to some sort of state of “normal,” I hear many people say that they do not truly find themselves enjoying life. I get it. It is hard, especially when our social media feeds are constantly flooded with the sight of negative posts. It is hard to get away from that cloud. However, I decided that I am taking back my summer.
In the past, my girls and I did summer adventures or road trips. We often had a hashtag that friends could follow or created a social media game of ‘guess where we are.’ Last year, while we gained Disney back in July, our summer was still not the same as normal. This year, I am taking back my summer. We may not be able to go do all of our normal adventures and I am still not fully in the mood to be constantly going places, but I plan to make a point to find joy in each day and enjoy my summer. With that, I am also hoping to take back a little corner of my own social media. I plan on posting the joy that I find in each day, between now and Labor Day, with the hashtag #EnjoyYourSummer2021 on my personal social media and *hopefully* on the social media platforms for @familyfoodfrolic, too. I will fully admit that currently our Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are all pretty bare-- mainly just placeholders for the names. However, maybe this is also a challenge for me to start building those up, too. I will straight say that my #EnjoyYourSummer2021 photo will not land on every social media page each day as they each serve different purposes.
My challenge to others: Find joy in your summer! Try to find at least one thing in your day that brings you joy. Share your joy at #EnjoyYourSummer2021
Finding your joy will look different for each person. Likely each day will also look different. Like I said, I am not ready to head out on adventures each day. After being home so much, I would feel burned out constantly being ‘on the go.’ Finding your joy may be enjoying a meal out, enjoying cooking a new recipe, enjoying doing art, enjoying reading a book, enjoying a nap, enjoying playing games with your kids, etc. What if nobody else participates? Honest answer- that’s fine… this is starting as my own challenge to ME to make sure that I enjoy each day of my summer. I plan on trying to drown out a bit of the negativity by sharing my posts in my little corner of social media. It would definitely be fun to see others join in. However, when we did hashtags before, they were just for people to follow along on our adventure. This year, I thought I would open up the idea for others to join in for sharing their own joy and positivity. If you choose to participate, by sharing a picture of something you enjoy this summer with #EnjoyYourSummer2021, it can be a one time thing or as often as you want.
Our first #EnjoyYourSummer2021 moment comes from Disney’s Blizzard Beach today. My joy today came from enjoying watching the joy that my younger daughter gets every time she gets drenched in the waterfall. I always avoid getting soaked by the water features on the lazy river, but she makes a point to go straight under them. I especially enjoyed this moment as she’s that middle school age where she has a few fun childhood things that she holds onto before becoming a full teenager and not wanting to have her hair messed up by the water.
@familyfoodfrolic Find your positives to enjoy each day of your summer! Cooling off at ##BlizzardBeach ##waltdisneyworld ##enjoyyoursummer2021 ##familyfoodfrolic
♬ Paradise - Ikson
Here is a graphic that people can download if they want to challenge others to find joy in their summer, too.
