College Kids
My Monday morning was thrown completely off balance when I awoke to the realization that I had slept through my 7:30 alarm. To my agitation, it was 9:15 and I had no hope of being on time for my Psychology class. Rather than begin my day rushed and overwhelmed, I opted to skip what was left of Psych and take my time getting ready for my Sociology lecture at 11:00. I decided to do some laundry in my newfound spare time. Only after putting the load in the washer and dousing it in detergent did I realize that the washer was broken and that the water would not work (no matter how many times I kicked it or twisted the dial). After a few choice words screamed into an empty kitchen, I settled on using the shower later to rinse the detergent out of the clothes and then drying them from there. By now, I was already in no mood to be trifled with. The Universe, it seems, must have disagreed. Upon getting out to the car, Ryan and I discovered bird poop spread on his window. Ew. (That one was kind of our fault for parking under a tree overnight, though…)
Because I’m the kind of person who always has to be over-prepared for everything, I had already tucked away mine and Ryan’s homework assignments for that day’s class in a labeled folder the night before. However, through an unfortunate communication mix-up, I missed the memo to turn them in. It wasn’t until they were being graded by our fellow classmates that I realized my mistake. Thanks to some of Ryan’s quick thinking (and even quicker hands), we were able to slip them to a few empty-handed students to be graded and turned in. We chose to see this as a sign that our luck had turned around. Perhaps this was the beginning of some of that good karma we’ve been working for.
We were dead wrong. This was proven by surprise expenses, never-ending lines in the bookstore that resulted in tardies for class, and obstacles in checking certain things off my daily “To-Do” list. But through all of the misfortune that this Monday had in store, I have still managed to pull out a nugget of self-discovery. I realized that I have the bad habit of taking life much too seriously. I tend to get caught up in thinking too far into the future, obsessing about things that I shouldn’t be worrying about—or at least not to the extent that I do. Today’s misadventures taught me that I need to slow down the pace and take some time to smell the flowers. I’m rushing through life and mixing up my priorities. In the long run, a missed quiz or a late class is not going to mean a damn thing. But the time I wasted worrying about how a missing assignment is going to affect my future as a Sociologist does mean something; because it is time thrown away, instead of cherished and utilized.
So remember to take it slow. The things that seem so huge and overbearing are usually not as important as we think at the time. Be responsible, set your alarm clock, and don’t sweat the small stuff. And really, most of it is small stuff.
