I feel like every week I find myself thinking, “I’ve had the roughest week ever this past week”. I hardly know any of my grades and with finals right around the corner, it’s driving me crazy. I was venting about all of this to my friend from back home when she told me one single phrase: “it’s fine”. And I thought, "You know what Nina? You are absolutely right."
You may be thinking, what do you mean? That doesn’t sound fine at all. But that’s the beauty of my life philosophy; it doesn’t actually have to be fine. About a third of the way through senior year, I was struggling in my human bio class. It was the day before our midterm, and for whatever reason I could not stop saying “it’s fine” and ultimately, I was right. My friend and I ended up passing that midterm and I actually got an A in the class. Regardless of all that stressing, everything truly was fine.
Since then, the words “it's fine” have kind of been a joke in my friend group. Someone will say “dang it, I just failed my math quiz”, and almost automatically, one of us will reply “it’s fine! You’ll get it next time” and funny enough, it’s pretty reassuring. Even when I was thinking about what my life philosophy was, Nina replied with “it’s fine, you’ll figure something out!” and that’s when it clicked: the saying “it’s fine” truly explains my life.
Turns out, saying “it’s fine” is actually a lot more contagious than originally intended. Although I thought it was going to be a one-time thing, after that test, it became my mantra. Even 10 months later when I came to Cal Poly, I was still saying it’s fine on a regular basis. Now all my roommates, my big, and most of my friends here say it’s fine and then give me a dirty look for intruding on their vocabulary.
I will admit, sometimes we say “it’s fine” when things really aren’t okay, but that’s not the point. However, I’m also not suggesting making something that is actually a big deal into something that you don’t really think about. For example, one time my best friend Thomas got into a car accident. His car crashed head-on into a tree, and the ambulance had to be called to get him out of his car. He was 100% okay, but he had a black eye and a huge bruise on his leg. However, the paramedics didn’t know this yet, so when Thomas said “No really, it’s fine” they thought he was crazy. It was a scary situation, but everything turned out to be okay in the end.
On the deeper end of things, “it’s fine” suggests a more positive outlook on life, contrary to what typically goes on in my head. When someone says “it's fine”, they are actually suggesting that the situation is better than what it appears, which is always so nice to hear in times of trouble. The situation itself doesn’t even have to be that big of a deal. From accidentally spending all of your money to even embarrassing yourself in front of a few people, it’s fine will always stay true and make your life more positive across the board. Bottom line is, you really can’t take life too seriously, no matter what it is that you are doing. Being too serious about everything will just stress you out, and you’ll miss out on so many fun opportunities that life has to offer. That’s one thing that is seriously not okay.
I love my friends and I love that we say “it’s fine” practically every other sentence. I encourage everyone to incorporate this positive view in their life because, who knows, maybe the next sticky situation you’re put into will turn out just fine.
