Think About It Before You Get A Bit Of Stress

I called my mother on mother’s day and had a long conversation. One thing that came up was how easy college is and was.

For some reason, whether it’s television and movies or real life, people seem to think that college is this incredibly difficult process that causes a boatload of stress. Maybe it’s because I’m going to school a few years older and have some life experiences under my belt because I can’t see it.

For the past two semesters, I’ve received a 3.6 and 3.8 GPA without doing anything special. I showed up most of the time, and every time I didn’t show up I weighed out the pros and cons, checked the schedule and made a calculated decision if it was worth it to miss it. Most of the papers I wrote were written the night before.

I did nothing special.

How did I manage to just go with the flow and perform? I just didn’t give a damn.

When it comes down to it, we only have so many things that can affect us before we get stressed. After being in the Marine Corps for a few years, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of things that cause me to get stressed. Yes, there is some relief when you finish a project you’ve been putting off. But when you calculate that it should only take three hours to bang out a paper, you allot four hours to do it and finish it. Then it’s over.

There are also two categories of things that impact you: controllable and uncontrollable. Most of the things that stress people out are uncontrollable. How can you be upset about something that you can’t change?

You’re driving your car and someone rear ends you. You have a few options.

  1. You get out of your car yelling at the other driver about how careless they are and how you’re going to make them pay and bang on their window when they don’t get out of their vehicle and get all butthurt over the fact that someone dented your bumper.
  2. You just say fuck it I can’t do anything about it now and wait to swap information then get your bumper fixed.

If it’s out of your control you just gotta go with the flow.

-Abraham Lincoln

Pretty sure that’s an accurate quote.

There are things that you can’t control that you will still get upset about. You end a relationship with someone, yeah that’s gonna mess you up for a bit. But then you weigh out the pros and cons. Think of all the things you can focus on now and improve yourself. That’s what I do and did.

You get sent overseas and there’s nothing you can do about it. You can either beat yourself up about how much you miss America, or you can embrace the fact that every person you’re there with feel the same way you do and can relate.

As far as the image above goes, have you ever seen a stressed out ostrich?

Me neither.