So lately it seems as if everyone around me is getting married, engaged, having a child, or accomplishing something. Me? I just do the work and school thing. I’m at a time in my life where the cliche phases no longer make any sense. I’m tired of being asked if I’ve been “found” yet, how I can be such an awesome person and not have a significant other. And my personal favorite “your time will come”. All of these phrases and questions do not serve any real purpose. While I can respect the fact that these sentiments come from a good place, they just don’t make sense. Granted, looking back I probably should have tried harder to get wifed up in college but the fact that I was paying for it (all of it) really made me more focused on graduating on time and getting good grades. Plus the homeschooled social skills weren’t the greatest. I say all this to say that I now know what not to say to younger people. However, I’m also not going to plan my life around an ideal or a plan that may never be my reality. I’m all for optimism but you have to have a plan B. It doesn’t work otherwise. As much as a significant change in my relationship status could positively affect my quality of life, I can also recognize the importance on not basing my happiness on the presence of someone else in my life. Not an easy pill to swallow. But it’s better in the long run.
Monthly Archives: May 2014
Lecture Time
I really hate lectures. Being homeschooled forced me to cultivate a very active imagination. As a result, I find it extremely easy to zone out when I’m bored. Daydreaming comes very easily to me and can be a welcome distraction from a monotone voice droning on about things I don’t care about or already know. I really dislike when a short attention span is blamed on the current generation or the fact that we are used to instant gratification. The fact of a matter is that if you’re a boring speaker, it doesn’t matter if I’m 80 or 8. I’m still going to be bored. In the world that we live in, there really no excuse for having a dry and boring lecture with the purpose of communicating some important information. We have been blessed with the privilege of visual aids that can help us get our point across without boring people to death. The problem with lectures is that you often feel as if you are being talked down to. While this is something that is somewhat expected in an educational setting, I can’t stand it in peer to peer settings. While I am someone who doesn’t believe in flaunting my education and my accomplishments, I also feel that I didn’t spend $100,000 for some letters behind my name to listen to someone who is talking down to me and is also boring at the same time. It’s pointless. Along with this category are people who have been put in a position of power who didn’t earn it and then now feel that they are entitled to share their opinion as if it were fact and that their age, class, socioeconomic position, or gender makes it (their opinion) valid. Dry lectures have to be one of the biggest wastes of time and energy ever. That being said, the ability to convey information and communicate clearly is a gift. A gift that I appreciate. Especially after being stuck in a dry, boring, and lifeless lecture.
Travel by Plane
One thing that I love about traveling is that it usually involves airplanes. As a child, my parents did not believe in the time saving ways of taking an airplane for transportation so we were always stuck in the back of some van for a 12-20 hour road trip. All this was fun and dandy, but as a child all I wanted to do was to see what it was like to fly in an airplane. I finally got my wish and flew for the FIRST time in an airplane when I was 17. I absolutely loved it. Airplanes are a great way of transportation and they allow you to get to places fast. As I was flying into Chicago last week I noticed that it was a beautiful day above the clouds. The airplane was cruising right among the clouds. However, as we started descending into the airport, the sun wasn’t shining any more and the weather was downcast, windy, and cold. It made me think about how many times we are blinded by our current circumstances and forget to consider the bigger picture. The sun always shines–whether we see it or not. And while I’m not necessarily an optimist, I think that looking at the bigger picture and even life in general can be helpful for some people who are so wrapped up in their current circumstance that they lose sight of the things that really matter. It may be dark but acknowledging the occasional beams of light that shine can help us to not get so caught up in our own situation.
Alisha's Angle 