Nothing's a big deal

"Don't sweat the small stuff... and it's all small stuff" - Richard Carlson

Stream of conscious writing never really flows as I expect it will. I thought I had a clear idea of what I was writing until all these unrelated ideas came into my head. I just felt called to blog really quickly about this idea. That nothing is THAT big of a deal. Having frustration that drives you to work harder and produce more positive results for the world is great. However, being stressed about exams, papers, friendships, and more is less great. It is good if you can manage the stress to help you produce great results in a short amount of time, but worrying/stressing in general is quite unhealthy.

This one lesson has been repeated over and over in my life. I remember the first time I learned this. I was in high school and realized that I stressed so much over grades throughout my elementary and middle school. I couldn't believe that the primary purpose of all the sacrifice and effort was acceptance into a good high school. So much was my disbelief, my first instinct was to share this good news with the world! :) Within the next year, I realized the same thing with high school! That is wasn't THAT big of a deal. I don't remember how much I acted on it, but I distinctly remember having this urge to share the "good news" with people about the truth that I had discovered about life. My conclusions felt confirmed when I met an obscure service desk guy while visiting Harvey Mudd. He talked about losing so much sleep and severely damaging his health for his first year or two. Then he realized that he really just needed to do the best he could while still taking care of himself. He still did well in school (B's or better), but actually enjoyed his life. 

Every one of these last sentences could be a blog post in of themselves... What I do instead is relax, change perspective, and focus on what I can control. I accept the lot I've been given and do the best I can with it. I know that all things are for my benefit in my life. Nothing is the end of the world. "The world keeps spinning, the world keeps spinning around." - Jay Sean from his song '2012'. :)