The Day After

The day after a birthday, or a symbolic day, I am left with a mixed feeling of content on one hand - 'ah, it happened..' and a disappointed feeling at another - 'ah, it's over.'  I find myself eagerly planning my next milestone: a day for a trip I'd like to take... A deadline for a new work in the horizon... A friend's visit from out of town to look forward to...
I eagerly plan for the next milestone because there is a subtle hope in having something on the horizon. 

I read somewhere (a newspaper? a website? a travel magazine? insert 'thinking emoji' here) that a person is more happy and excited in the two weeks leading up to a vacation than during the vacation itself. This notion blew my mind, (Well.... clearly not enough to remember the source - insert 'shrugging emoji' here) and made me realize the value in looking forward. In consciously inserting hope into my life. In putting things on the horizon. 

So the day after a trip, or the day after a birthday, or the day after a deadline - is the day I come up with something new on the horizon: A hope, a plan, a goal. A date to look forward to. Are my eyes set on a new filmmaking application to jumpstart my next project and provide a work deadline for it? Maybe. Am I looking at google flights obsessively plotting my next travel plan now the world is opening up a bit? Possibly. Am I setting a new goal in my calendar to aspire to? Probably. 

And just like that - the day AFTER becomes one of the days BEFORE...