As spring begins to rapidly approach (thankfully), I can’t help but to sit back and reflect on what that means. It means that another semester of college is almost over. It means that we are already one fourth of the way through a whole new year. It means that I turn 21 in three months. As I think about all of these things, I find myself wondering: How the hell did that happen?
It feels like just last week I was graduating high school. It feels like last year that I was planning play dates with my elementary school friends. I know we say it all of the time, but it is truly crazy how quickly time moves. Somewhere between the days and the months, my worries went from "Why is Mom making me eat carrots?" to "Why isn’t that boy texting me back?" to "Holy sh*t, do I want to go to grad school?"
I always hear adults say how quickly the years start to go as you get older, but I can’t even imagine the years going quicker than they do already. We spend so much time planning our lives and worrying about mundane things, that I think we forget that we are actually living these lives. At the end of the day, does it really matter if you got a C on that paper if it means stressing about it is going to hurt your health? Probably not, unless you make it a habit. Know when it matters and when it doesn’t. That is a process that involves slowing down and actually thinking, instead of just going through the motions.
As the lovable character Marshall always says in "How I Met Your Mother," “That’s problem for future Marshall.” While I by no means endorse putting off every decision, sometimes it is better to just slow down. Take a walk. Do some yoga. Read a book. Call your Mom. Take time for yourself. Not everything is urgent and needs an immediate solution. Once you realize that, you might just be a little bit happier.
I am the type of person that gets completely overwhelmed with major decisions and I am incredibly indecisive. I am also too self-aware and hard on myself. I have to actually concentrate on slowing down and stopping my brain from worrying about things that I don’t need to be worrying about in that moment. But it’s worth it. Train yourself to slow down and trust yourself to know what needs to be prioritized. If you don’t, you’ll blink and it’ll be over.
