My first day driving to college in North Carolina from North Alabama went smoother than expected. I drove through Atlanta with my mom in the front seat with no issues, got through the major traffic zones fine, and made it to Charlotte, NC in one piece. I went to The Health and Wellness Center immediately when I arrived to Charlotte to make sure they had all of my medical information. I had a good send off with the Health and Wellness team and had a perfect peace that I most definitely chose the right college for me.
On my way out of the parking lot I realized that my SUV was barely fitting in the almost too tight parking lot. I started to back out feeling nervous that I wasn't going to make it out with no issues. With my mom in my ear exasperating, "Madison you're not going to make it, you're just not going to make it!" I pulled back in and reversed and BOOM I hit one of the councilor's cars... The damage resulted in only a small dent and a couple of scratches but i was frozen with my hands gripped to the steering wheel and panic behind my eyes for two minutes after the fact. After twenty minutes of silence while my parents repeatedly told me it was no big deal, we laughed and joked about it for the rest of the night.
My first actual night at the dorm, my roommate and I had our room fully decorated. We transformed a room that resembled a jail cell to an HGTV safe haven. We had decorations on the walls, paintings up, and our desks organized. We were fully prepared for a great night's sleep in our new home. Around 1:30 in the morning I woke up panicked about the crash I heard. I had just kicked the coffee cup off my desk on to the floor and broke the handle, because my desk touches the bottom of my bed I kicked it off in my sleep... About 30 minutes later I woke up to another crash from my huge wooden painting that had missed my computer by about 2 inches. Another 30 minutes past and I woke up from my roommate's decorations falling. And about an hour later I woke up because I had a huge urge to go to the bathroom, but I was too scared to go to the bathroom across the hall by myself, so I suffered until morning. By that point I was determined I would never be able to get a goodnight sleep in this unfamiliar place, that I would never be able to call this room home.
But the next morning at breakfast our room "adventure" was the most popular conversation for laughs of the morning. I wasn't able to practice with the soccer team for preseason for about a week because of a previous hip injury, I went over a thousand times in my head the long list of negatives. I had myself convinced that I wasn't going to be at the level of my teammates when I returned, because I had missed so much practice, but I ended up making good bonds with the other handful of injured players and laughing every day. When I came back I had such a better appreciation for soccer than I had before I couldn't practice.
All of this to say that life is consistent chaos; we choose to laugh about it or or stress about it. Life will never stop being crazy but with a perspective of the glass half full, over half empty we can learn to enjoy the chaos, and enjoy this life. Let's just laugh.
