Yellow Balloons jordanmarsh6, March 1, 2021April 5, 2023 First, check out this picture: I’m going to try and explain the situation as simply as I can: I started med school in Illinois while my wife needed to finish her master’s degree in DC. For three months (Aug – Nov) we lived apart from each other. Every few weeks I went to DC to visit my wife and daughter for the weekend. In total we saw each other four times over those three months. That picture is of me on a shuttle at the Chicago airport getting back from visiting them for the first time. It was a rough day. I had just had to say bye to my wife and daughter and wouldn’t be able to see them again for another three weeks. I was going through a ton at that time too: med school was brand new and kicking my butt, I was completely alone (especially because of COVID) in Illinois and missing my two favorite people, and I had just made a cross country move to make it all work. Life felt like it weighed a ton around that time. You probably noticed the yellow balloons on my shirt… since I titled this post “Yellow Balloons”. The yellow balloons were the reason why I took the picture in the first place. Here’s another related picture: This picture is from when I was saying good-bye to my daighter earlier that day. I was crying saying good-bye to her, and she started to put those balloon stickers on my shirt. She’s a solid two years old at the time, so she doesn’t really know what is happening; but those yellow balloons took on a life of their own after that. I walked proudly through the Reagan and O’Hare airports with those balloons. I may have looked ridiculous but I didn’t care. I got home that night, took off each yellow balloon from my shirt, and put each one on the wall right next to my bed. Every night for the next three months until my wife and daughter came back, I would kiss my hand and touch those balloons. Those three months were long, lonely, and hard for me; and those little yellow balloons were a powerful reminder each night of the two people I loved most. What’s my point? First, there was an initiation ceremony; my daughter sticking yellow balloons on my shirt while I am saying goodbye to her for essentially three months. Second, there was a renewal ritual; me kissing those yellow balloons every night before I go to bed. It may seem silly, but those little balloons meant the world to me. What if we tied what we want most in life to a powerful and dramatic initiation ceremony, and then used a renewal ritual frequently to remind ourselves of what we want? I can think of a few examples: people getting married and then renewing their vows after x years. People getting BORN and then us celebrating a birthday every year afterwards. Another one I think of a lot is U.S. presidential inaugurations. The peaceful transfer of power was so rare and unheard of before America was founded, that our founders made a point to set a tradition of celebrating that very transfer of power (had quite the scare this year though). I want to put my money wear my keyboard is and start implementing these ideas. Next week I’ll report back on how it went. Self Improvement