Ut oh...she's on a soapbox!

I've been noticing a trend amongst my friends lately that I am not all about. What is this trend, you ask? It's a little thing I like to call "looking too far into the future and not appreciating what you have around you right now". (The title is a bit wordy, I agree). I'm not sure if I'm noticing this more and more as we all quickly approach graduation or if I've just been oblivious to it.

Regardless, I am getting so sick of seeing all these status on facebook counting down the days to graduation and counting down the days to "get out of Tallahassee". Maybe I'm a crazy person, but I LOVE Tallahassee! I love the small but not too small feel it has, I am in love with Maclay Gardens, I love having the Capitol a hop, skip and a jump away, basically I love it all! I'm not saying that people should not look forward to things, that is simply not the case. I just sometimes wish people would sit back and smell the roses. Life is crazy, it's fast paced, sometimes things won't go the way you want them to but that doesn't mean you should make yourself unhappy now. I know I am going to long for the days I was in college 10 years from now. These are the best days of our lives, why rush things?

If you know me at all you may find all of this a bit odd for my obvious obsession with stress. Yes, I will admit it, I stress out a lot. Recently I've tried to change this. The things I was stressing about were out of my hands and I had no control over them. (Which in turn made me stress out more). I don't know what it was, but on my last visit home something hit me. I felt at ease, comfortable, relaxed. It made me realize that life seriously is way too short to worry all the time. What's the point?

I think we all just need to take the time out of our crazy days and honestly sit back and relax. My roommate makes fun of me because I love sitting on our deck and just listening to nature. Maybe I'm a freak, but it honestly relaxes me to no end. I also like to do little things daily to mix things up. I am a create of habit and realized that it was making me unhappy. Doing the same old, same old--day in and day out. It's no fun! Therefore I take different routes on my way home. I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but it's crazy how you can see things differently just by mixing it up a bit.

Also, I've started doing a lot of "awareness walks". This is something my high school psychology teacher introduced me to. Basically, you take a walk around a place that you are extremely familiar with, do not talk at all, and just look around and see how many new things you are exposed to. We did this around my high school and I was amazed at everything I used to walk by daily and not even notice.

Again, maybe I'm a huge weirdo but I really do think people need to appreciate FSU, Tallahassee, and everything going on in their life right now. Someday we will wish it wouldn't have gone by so quickly.

I'll end this with a quote that I absolutely adore! Please promise me you won't laugh when I tell you where I got it....okay...I read this in the book "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff". Yes, I know--horrible! Like I said earlier, I stress out a lot! Ha. Anyways, here is the quote:

"The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway."