I’ve always been some sort of planner. Whether I used to free planner my school gave me for the year, or a cheap one my mom bought me, I always wanted to write things down. The earliest memory of this is from elementary school and it was required by our teachers to use the planners they provided. Little did I know that I would forever use a planner, and it is now a creative outlet for me to be organized and create.
My mom knew I would need a planner for college, but unfortunately, college doesn’t have free planners like high school and before does, so we started doing some research. I didn’t really know what I needed in a planner for school so I basically trusted her and her thoughts. We landed upon a Plum Paper Planner. It was a really cool planner. She customized it just for me. She put my name on it and was able to customize the layout to include all of my class names. I used it for my entire freshman year and was so glad to have a planner in my life for balancing being a freshman in college, being engaged to my now husband (yes we got married young), and having a job. College was different than any other schooling I’ve experienced and without a planner, I wouldn’t have survived.
Honestly, I didn’t make a lot of friends freshman year of college, and I got really depressed. I remember one weekend my mom drove over 4 hours to pick me up so I can go home for one day. Anyway, the summer after freshman year, I got married and that made school life even harder since I was balancing being a newlywed and a sophomore in college. I didn’t really my first semester of sophomore year out, and I could tell the difference in me knowing what was going on. I knew I needed something different for second semester, something that worked for me.
I still hadn’t found anything by the time Christmas break was over, so I started the second half of my sophomore year without a planner, and without a “life”. I was still depressed even though I had mostly everything I could want, an amazing husband, and attending college for my dream major. I still had no friends, and I was struggling to make any on campus because I was never there and I was struggling to make any at church because, well, let’s be honest, I suck at starting a conversation. I finally started talking to a person from church and she mentioned The Happy Planner to me. She showed me hers and she showed me them online and the next day I was at Hobby Lobby with her buying my first planner, the botanical gardens 2016-2017 Happy Planner.
I bought it in March of 2016 and I wanted to start right away, so I made my own type of extension pack on the computer and printed it to start using. I noticed a difference from mid-terms on that semester, and a difference in my overall demeanor. I had a different outlook on life.
Well, there were still a couple girls at church that I knew who used The Happy Planner, but I didn’t have the courage to talk to them. One of them was pregnant, so I just went for it, I told her when her baby was born I would love to start hanging out with her weekly and crafting. And she introduced me to washi tape and stickers and another friend at church who started coming to our weekly crafting sessions after her baby was born a few months later! I was finally getting friends and I was finally seeing a light at the end of my depression tunnel.
Those two girls are still my best friends, but we don’t craft nearly as often as we should, and I’m not in college anymore. So why do I plan now?
For one, its a much needed necessity in my crazy life. Being a foster parent requires a lot of appointments and scheduling that I wouldn’t be able to do without my Happy Planner. My work schedule is crazy and changes every week. My pregnancy appointments need to be scheduled well in advance. My errands need to be tracked or they won’t happen. My dates need to be scheduled or they won’t be a priority. Church needs to be scheduled or I might not make it to a Sunday when I’m serving. I wouldn’t be memory keeping about the foster children we have had. I wouldn’t be faith journaling. My list can go on and on, but the main reason I plan is because it is NEEDED in my life. Without my planner, I wouldn’t know what was going on. Without my Happy Planner, I wouldn’t have much needed encouragement daily to keep me going on the right track.
I’m so thankful for the organization that The Happy Planner has brought to my life as well as the friendships that have been enriched because of it. I’m also navigating living with depression and anxiety, but it has been so much better with everything that The Happy Planner offers.
When will you start planning a happier life?
💜 Amber Thorne
AmberPlansHerDay 