As a member of the all brass Mustang Marching Band, I am all too familiar with the "c-word." This word, one which shall live in infamy, is despised among most people in general, including brass members. In fact, if you get caught being one of these, it may just end you in a "pep rally" (meaning you're in trouble!) with Mr. D, our band director. I don't like to think of myself as one of these, but lately, I've been feeling like I'm a big, fat one. That's right folks, a complainer.
I don't want to be one of those people who sit there and do nothing but complain about how hard his or her life is, because honestly, it's annoying to hear about. "Oh, I have to go work a three hour shift at McDonald's and go to volleyball practice and do twelve algebra II problems. Boo hoo hoo hooo..." That's lame. I don't, however, work three hour shifts at McDonald's. I will never work less than 7 hours at a time at Panera Bread. I'm not in volleyball, but I am in the Brass, which is A LOT more work than most would accredit for. And as far as algebra II? I get about 50 calculus problems a night. So there, I guess you can officially call me the c-word.
But something really cool happened to me the other night in a dream, and it's gonna sound really weird to explain. So, here goes nothing.
I was standing on a dock, next to this giant, blue lake. (Or maybe it was an ocean? It was a gargantuan body of water.) It was so peaceful and serene. There was not another living creature in sight, just me and this lake. All of a sudden, My band director, Mr. D, came out of no where yelling at me. It went something like, "You need to stay in line when you're prancing! You're horn angle is terrible! Watch your parade choreography!" I was a little shocked so I back off, but as soon as I did, my boss, Jen, stepped out from behind me and started yelling too. "Why is your drawer fifteen cents short? Did you FIFO the cream cheeses? There needs to be day dots in these syrups! Stock your cups!" I turned around only to find Mr. Abbey, my calc. teacher. "You don't know how to work your hundred and twenty dollar graphing calculator that you just got a week ago with sheer perfection? Three hundred homework problems for everyone." I'm pretty sure all my other teachers and managers were there too, even my dad, yelling at me to clean my car. And my room. And my bathroom. I got so overwhelmed, I jumped into the lake. Soon, I was floating weightlessly near the bottom of this water giant. It was silent, serene, relaxing. For once, nothing was expected out of me. I could just float. (Don't ask me how I managed to breathe?) So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, do I need a break? Am I running away from my problems? Do I need to go jump in a lake? Or, could it possibly be that I'm just being a big, fat c-word?
When reading your blog I could not help but think of myself. I totally understand where you are coming from when it comes to being overwhelmed. Today in life we have so much stuff going on like: school, sports, work, choirs, and so many other things. Once worrying about all of these things I wonder when I will have time just to have fun. From being in this situation I learned the only way is organization. Trust me if you knew me personally you would know I was not always the most organized. I learned the hard way by having to stay up late doing homework because I waited till the last minute. I also experienced being too tired during sports or work because I was trying to balance all of these things at one time. So my advice to you coming from a newly organized person is to step back and take a breath. Get a planner and write out what all needs done for the week. Also don’t forget to plan really far ahead as well. My other advice is don’t wait till the last minute to do school work, always work ahead. From going to college I learned it is nice not having to rush to get everything done in one night. The other key to organization is to do a little at a time. When I say this I mean when you see something in your room that is messy clean it up, it will prevent a bigger mess from happening. This will allow you from having to spend a lot of your time cleaning.
ReplyDeleteMy other piece of advice is when people are always nagging you it means they are stressed too. They also have a lot of things that need done, so don’t it the wrong way. As a person I get how complaining is easy to do, but remember when your complaining that is time wasted! Always remember it is better to face reality so keep our head above water and take control. I wish you the best and remember so many people understand what you are going through.
Well, first off, the title of this blog post is fuu-reaking hilarious. I do not know if you were trying to create that innuendo, but that is funny (or maybe I just have a juvenile mind, I don’t know.) But, in terms of the overall significance of that blog post, I can definitely agree with how you are feeling and the questions you are asking. On a side note, holy crap you have a busy as heck schedule! And I thought mine was hectic ha-ha. In terms of questioning whether or not to take a break from life, if I were you, I probably would take one. I am not some sort of sophisticated psychologist or dream analyzer, but it definitely sounds like you are stressed out of your mind a little. And, honestly, that is completely okay, we all get stressed sometimes. That being said, stress and over-stressing things are two completely different things. I am a firm believer that stress definitely pushes an individual to their greatest work ethic, but over stressing can basically just break a person. It is kind of like a rubber band. Yeah, you can stretch it some and it will do what its purpose is, but if you stretch it too far, then it breaks and snaps your wrist. So, again this is just me, but, if I were you, I would take some time to hang out with friends or go to the movies or a party. And, no, you are definitely not the “C” word! Also, I wish my dreams had significance in them… mine are just typically weird events about how a dinosaur ate my refrigerator or something pointless.
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