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May is over, and it felt like finally, knock on wood, I got a reprieve from some of the stuff that’s gone on this year. Between mourning my grandma, my mom’s cancer diagnosis, and some other personal stress, nothing truly remarkable happened! I went to LA for work, went out to Navy Pier to see some Nashville friends play, and even got to make it to a Cory Branan show. The older I get, the more I start to really enjoy May – it’s usually when I spend a lot of time planning out my summer, and just like last year, I’m so excited to be spending it in Chicago. It’s the king of street festivals and I love that there are so many fun, free ways to see the city!

This month my saved links echoed the theme of something I’ve been focusing on in therapy – you don’t have to carry around everyone’s crap, and you don’t even have to carry around your own crap.

The Cost of Losing Your Keys: Okay, this first one is less in the “theme” of the others, but I’m so proud of it – I’M FINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE BILLFOLD! It’s been my favorite blog for years (the only one that I can remember reading in every city I’ve lived in) and I would be lying if I didn’t think it was super cool that I’m published on the same site as Taylor Jenkins Reid now. Last summer I lost my house keys… and let’s just say, it’s cost a lot more than I would have thought it could. (My roommate would like to update the total with an additional $50 from when she locked herself out of the apartment and had to take a Lyft out to pick up our spares from my boyfriend.) Anyway, it’s been my goal to write for The Billfold for a really long time, and I’m so happy to have finally done it.

9 Simple Ways to Start Living a More Minimal Lifestyle: Apartment Therapy has been my guilty mindless blog lately, and the articles are really helping me purge things I don’t need anymore but have struggled to part with. 8 and 9 in this list have been key to me while trying to clear out my closets. Their Weekend Project series is super fun too – every now and then if I’m just sitting at home not doing anything, I’ll take a look to see if there’s something I can quickly knock out.

If It Ain’t Yours, Don’t Carry It: Marisa Mohi is a friend-of-a-friend I’ve linked to before, and if you’re a writer, I definitely suggest adding her blog and YouTube channel to your regular reads. This post helps to simplify a pretty easy concept – you don’t have to carry the burdens of others – and it’s just something that I needed to hear at just the right time.

On Weight: I know Malory through the same grapevine I know Marisa from, and her food podcast is really great (if you’re in the Oklahoma City area and need food recommendations, OKC OVER EASY is where to look!) I’ve struggled with my weight for basically my whole life except the two years I was running super regularly. In this post, Malory says weight is stress I carry around on my body. I identify with this in a brutally familiar way, and part of losing weight for me is shedding the memory that a lot of the weight carries.

How to Stop Letting Your Anxiety Make Decisions for You: I’m getting much better about this, but I definitely admit that it hasn’t always been easy and I haven’t always excelled. Most of the time, whatever anxiety I feel isn’t even about the thing I’m feeling it toward, so really trying to figure out what’s actually going on has been key in starting to deal with this more effectively.

What are you reading this month? Any particular projects you’re working on to get summer ready?