August was an alright month – Nick and I kicked it off by going to a 70s/80s disco, which wasn’t as awesome as I thought it was, but was still pretty cool. I got a new top retainer/plate earlier this month which I have been wearing at night, while still wearing my old bottom one as much as I can to fix my crooked teeth.

Nick and I saw John Oliver live on the 31st. He was purely hilarious. I love the guy. We were hoping to bump into him but a girl leaving work at the theatre said that he was staying at the hotel next door so doubted he would come out. Ah well.

I had a couple of emotional trips in August but I think things are looking up from here.

The three things I’m most proud of from August are:

• Wearing my new retainer/plate every night since I got it on the 6th August. :D
• Approaching Fiona about giving a talk at a future meetup. She gave me a lot of encouragement and convinced me that my ideas were very good ones. I look forward to speaking at SydCSS one day!
• I deployed my updated blog design, which got some good feedback. I am just very proud with the changes I made and how I have improved the look of my blog.

The three things I’m most grateful for from August are:

• The support of people around me. You know who you are! I didn’t have the best month, and I struggled and stressed a lot, but couldn’t have gotten by without the help of my friends.
• Fiona’s support regarding my plans to jump into the world of public speaking. I appreciate that she took the time to listen to my ideas and help me prod them out. As soon as I find the time, I am going to sit down and knock out a plan.
• Nick’s parents got me a cake to congratulate me on landing a new job (I know I started at my current workplace not long ago, but this was a really fantastic opportunity and I look forward to writing more about it later on). ^_^

The lesson I learned and am carrying forward with me from August is:

Few things are worth stressing over, crying about, or losing sleep over. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, get over it, or let things fix themselves because there is only so much you can do.

My intention for September is:

To show everyone what I am capable of and that I am strong and willing.

Because I am brave, here are two things I have been avoiding that I will do in September:

1. Try getting rid of some of my band shirts. D:
2. I will try oil pulling again since I didn’t get a chance to try that last month.

Just for fun, I will:

Try a new salad at a restaurant. I am also trying Jem’s ‘Septemblog’ – which I only found out yesterday (the 2nd) but I will attempt to blog thirty days in a row. I won’t try too hard, though, because pressure sucks.

As an act of intentional kindness, I will:

I feel like I did a lot of nice things in August – reached out to a couple of people who I knew needed someone to talk to; gave Michael a pineapple decoration I no longer wanted because I knew he would love it; and though technically on the last day of July, I bought Nick a dozen cookies and cream cupcakes as a surprise.

This month I will try to help anyone wherever I can, and offer to pay for someone’s drink or lunch if there is the opportunity. :)

Monthly review template from Nicole.