February (In a Few Words)

Hello, everyone! I hope that all of you will have a day without grey clouds and soggy fried chicken.

For my blog post this week, I have the newest addition to my month series. February transpired in an odd fashion, as sporadic and busy as the weather, but I want the month to return, now. Do not tell me that it is March; I will not believe you. Anyway, since this month taught me a lot, I will focus more on sharing advice in this post than on description.

I hope you enjoy. (:

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• Resist Becoming Too Immersed in One World
  • Living in more than one place proves quite difficult. You end up projecting a tremendous amount of focus on building one world while neglecting the other. And, worst of all, sometimes you fail to live in the world you currently reside; you fall through the present and dream of your other world that lies among the stars.
  • MSA and my house both equal the word home. However, at MSA, I have the tendency to yearn to be with my pets and my family watching movies, sleeping in, and cooking and eating tacos. And at my house, I have the tendency to yearn to be in my literary classroom drinking coffee, in the cafeteria eating loaded baked potato soup, in my room listening to music and writing, and outside walking and picking dandelions.
  • Every world deserves to be savored with you standing in its soil. Feel free to dream a little when distant, but remain present and appreciative of your current surroundings before you leave and become homesick.

 

• Adapt to Stress; Remain Resilient
  • Everyone loves stress interrupting their carefully woven routine, right? You wake up at a certain time, brush your teeth at a certain time, and dance to A Flock of Seagulls at a certain time, but wait—a stressor falls from the sky and ruins everything…no more A Flock of Seagulls. Before you know it, you have a hood pulled over your bitter eyes as you kick innocent flowers and mumble about your hatred towards said stressor.
  • I always anticipate January to be a busy month, but February surprised me beyond belief. The first half of the month, I could hardly breathe. For unstated reasons, a major stressor sliced two hours off of my free time. To compensate for lost time, I stayed up late and ate a lot of chips and salsa. The stress drained my optimism, and at times I only wanted to sleep or watch The Dark Knight. Thankfully, the stress has dissipated.
  • Resist becoming discouraged. Escaping hopelessness is like climbing out of a sandy pit, but the act is possible. Attack stress with an optimistic, resilient spirit and find ways to alleviate some suffering. For instance, I split my off-block into time for homework and time for recovering sleep. Also, I brought snacks with me to obligations I dreaded immensely. And I did not cut out moments of my day that I looked forward too (calling my mom, journaling, and walking).

 

• Take Care of Yourself
  • That brings me to my next topic: Please take care of yourself. When you have a lot of deadlines to meet and expectations to fulfill, transforming into a robot seems appealing, but trust me—you will be making a huge mistake.
  • This month, I considered going without talking to people that made me happy, wanting to spend every milligram of my time on assignments instead. However, I did not, and I am glad because I managed to do more than survive: I reached deadlines to the best of my ability, and I did not feel like a toiling machine.
  • Remember that priorities include your well-being. Feel free to take a day off; I promise that you will accomplish more the next day. Section your time off reasonably. For instance, instead of giving yourself three straight hours to complete homework, finish one assignment and take a designated break to avoid excessively frittering your time away. Also, surround yourself with what you need and want. Listen to music and eat an orange and make sure to sleep. Never fall asleep in the process of chasing contentment; living is not surviving alone.

 

• Positive Energy
• Does everything feel grey and cloudy? Does everyone seem trapped in a bad mood? Do you feel overwhelmingly pessimistic and discouraged?
• My least favorite color of the sky is grey. I hate grey. And February had rain every week, so it proved a challenge to resist feeling a little grey and rainy myself. I found myself absorbing the negative emotions of my peers, and it lessened my optimism towards stress. However, surrounding myself with people of good, positive energy helped combat this, and I felt inclined to spread a little orange as well. It flipped days destined to drag me down into sunny ones.
• Spend less time and effort on the people furthest from you; protect your energy reserves. Instead, spend more time on creative projects, enjoyable downtime, and amazing people (do not neglect assignments, obligations, and deadlines however…sorry). And if no positivity is to be found, provide it. Wear your favorite colors and be kind; do not withhold your compliments. You matter—remember that. So leave more of an impact on the world through your daily actions. I guarantee that life will have more color and meaning if you live more in the present.

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Dear February,

I appreciate you throwing the ACT at me.

On a more serious note, a lot of beautiful moments occurred despite the overwhelming amount of stress in the beginning:

• Coffee
• Workshopping a play about surfer dudes
• Blogging about music
• Listening to music (especially The Cure)
• Receiving gifts (thank you so, so much—especially you, Maleigh  🙂  )
• Somehow surviving two weeks of no sleep and no time
• Eating tacos at home
• Cooking and listening to New Order and Tears for Fears with my dad
• Begging for a synthesizer (and offering to pay half…to no avail—unless..?)
• The miniscule amount of time I have with my mom
• Drinking tea while working on homework
• Poetry Out Loud field trips with our superstar Morgan (plus Taco Bell)
• Lunch and dinner with epic people and conversations
• Making flower bouquets during my off-block
• Making a chapbook
• Writing poetry
• Kicking things found in the grass

Inside jokes that I have enjoyed:

• Diabolical villains that steal showers
• Skelebones
• Dry chicken
• Taco Tuesday
• Dabbing
• “fisten to evaporate”
• “I know you love me…I know you care”
• Tony Pepperoni
• “The gatekeeper”
• “Make your mama happy!”
• Rudolph
• What the heck desktops
• Happy Birthday
• sleep
• Ye olde bones
• Smiley faces
• Dandelions
• R.I.P. pinecone

Okay…I am done.

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Wednesday’s Fun Fact:

Chapbooks are awesome to create and assemble. Grouping poems of similar themes and tones increases your understanding of your work, and creating a collection of your art feels amazing. Make sure, however, that you have the time and the resources.  😥

Peace