Enjoying Life

Today, I came to a realization. I realized that I take life way too seriously. I mean, life should be taken seriously, to an extent, but I take it just one step too far. I take things so seriously, that I forget to have fun. I forget to laugh. I forget to actually LIVE. And that’s a problem. I see other people living their lives, and they manage to maintain a sense of joy, and happiness, and freedom in the way they live, and carry themselves. I realized today, that I need to learn how to do that for myself. I need to learn how to enjoy the moments that are happening, and to really take them in. I need to learn how to be unafraid of failure, and of success, because I seem to fear both, if I’m being truthful. I need to learn that my anxiety and stress about life, does not need to control me, and consume me, on a daily basis. Life doesn’t have to be awful, if you choose to make it great. Granted, some things that happen in life are horrible, and they can’t avoided, but I’m not talking about those unseen, unstoppable events. I’m not talking about what life throws at people, and how they have to deal with it. I’m talking about making an effort to make every day great, if you have the ability, and I believe we all do. Even if it’s just something small that happens, that can be the great event of the day. I realized that life really isn’t fair, and good things don’t always happen to good people, so we almost have to make our own luck, and take chances to make things great in our own lives. In my life. That’s my goal anyway. My goal is to stop taking life so seriously. To relax, and enjoy the ride. And to truly believe, that everything happens exactly when it’s meant to. I’m going to make every day great, and be grateful for every day. I’m going to find the silver lining, even if it takes all damn day. Even when life throws me horrible, unavoidable curve balls, I’m going to try to make the best of it, enjoy the day regardless, and continue to hope that tomorrow will be a better day! I’m going to live, and truly taste the goodness of every single day, because each day is truly a gift, and I’m not going to forget that anymore. Life is all we have, right? Might as well enjoy it! xxx

I Go Mad

If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad.

-Lord Byron

Being Prepared…

I keep my eyes on the sea, waiting to be rocketed into it on a wave of fire. I’ll be ready for it to happen and that way it won’t happen. It’s a burden, being able to control situations with my hyper-vigilance, but its my lot in life.

-Tina Fey

I Want Someone…

I want someone who will be monogamous and nice to his mother. And I want someone who likes musicals, but knows to just shut his mouth when I’m watching Lost. And I want someone who thinks being really into cars is lame and strip clubs are gross. I want someone who will actually empty the dishwasher instead of just taking out forks, as needed, like I do. I want someone with clean hands and feet and beefy forearms like a damn Disney prince. And I want him to genuinely like me even when I’m old. And that’s what I want.

-Tina Fey

Anxiety by Tina Fey

My ability to turn good news into anxiety is rivaled only by my ability to turn anxiety into chin acne.

-Tina Fey

The Importance of…being able to laugh at yourself

I am a complicated person. I vacillate between finding everything funny, and being very serious, between thinking life is ridiculous and wonderful, and thinking life is painful and unfair. I just have never been able to figure out exactly what I think and feel about things, I change daily. I have been accused, many times, of being overly sensitive. Conversely, I have also been accused of being cold, of being tough, and kind of an ice queen as well. My moods and reactions seem to change as frequently as the weather in the Midwest in springtime. But, even though I can go from happy to sad in the blink of an eye, I have learned that there is one thing I need to retain, one quality that is important for not only me, but other people to possess, and that is a sense of humor. A sense of humor about oneself. It is incredibly important to be able to laugh at yourself, and not take yourself so seriously.

It is difficult to laugh at oneself sometimes, especially if you tend to be a sensitive person such as myself, or if you have a fragile ego, and frail self-esteem. I also have a tendency to put an incredible amount of pressure on myself, not only to be good at everything I attempt, but also to be perfect and to always win. So, these qualities, in conjunction with my sensitivity, can at times leave me vulnerable to serious embarrassment and anger when I mess up, or do something stupid, and people make fun of me for it. It can cause me to lash out at people, and be unnecessarily mean to them, when their joking and making fun is simply harmless and not intended to hurt. They believe they’re just being silly and we can all have a good laugh, but sometimes it’s hard for me to remember that. But, I’ve learned over time, that being able to laugh at yourself when you mess up along with everyone else, is one of the most important things you can do.

Being able to laugh at yourself makes you a better person, because it lets some of the pressure off yourself. When other people are laughing, and you’re able to laugh with them, you allow yourself to be relaxed, to be just a regular person, who isn’t afraid to make mistakes, and also isn’t perfect. Nobody is perfect, everybody makes me mistakes, and doing something silly, and being able to laugh at it shows maturity and growth as a person, a person who has grown into an adult who doesn’t take everything so seriously. It shows that you know your friends aren’t trying to hurt you, they’re just trying to relieve the awkwardness of a situation.

This is very different from if you’re being bullied intentionally by people. That is wrong and should not be tolerated. But if you’re with a group of people who are your friends, that you trust, it’s ok to be silly and laugh at each other, and at yourselves, and there nothing wrong with that. Why take everything so seriously, especially life? Like the famous saying goes, no one gets out of here alive anyway.

Original Work: KH 09/28/13

Weird

I am weird, you are weird. Everyone in this world is weird. One day two people come together in mutual weirdness and fall in love.

-Dr. Seuss

That’s Life

That’s life. One minute you’re on top of the world, the next minute some secretary’s running you over with a lawn mower.

-Joan Harris

It’s What Men Do

You don’t know how to drink. Your whole generation, you drink for the wrong reasons. My generation, we drink because it’s good, because it feels better than unbuttoning your collar, because we deserve it. We drink because it’s what men do.

-Roger Sterling, Mad Men

I think this applies to women too.