Today in class, our English teacher, Mr. T, was talking to us about struggles. He told us the story of his brother — how even though he went to this great school, he still had to face great difficulties. He couldn’t find a job, he had no home, his marriage was falling apart. Mr. T then went on explaining to us that we, as students, and our parents spend way too much time thinking about the future, which is definitely true. Parents, cousins, aunts, and uncles have always asked me, “What college do you plan on going to?” and “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And every time I was asked that, I’d answer with a simple, “I don’t know yet.” At first, I didn’t really stress about it. I’d always thought, “Oh, I still have a couple more years to think about all this. I’ll just let older me worry about it. The older the wiser, right?” But, as I’m getting older, these questions have been coming up more often and my answers have still been, “I don’t know.” So much for being wiser, huh? Now, it’s beginning to become frustrating. Here they are, asking me what I want to do in 3 years — what I want to do with the rest of my life, and I don’t even know what I want to eat for lunch tomorrow.
Anyway, back to my story. So, Mr. T was telling us about how we stress too much for the future. He went on saying that we should live in the now. That happiness is now. Not in the past, not in the future, now. He explained to us that we shouldn’t sacrifice all of our time and happiness for something that could happen. I’ve always heard people say things like this… you know, things like, “Take some time out of your day and stop to smell the roses!” I used to think that this saying was literal — that someone would actually stop in the middle of their walk to smell roses. And then I grew up and realized that it wasn’t literal… that people were actually saying you should stop and appreciate the things and people you have around you. And I’ve always thought that this saying was really cheesy. But now, I’ve realized that some days, you really do have to just stop and “smell the roses,” because all we do is worry, worry, worry. I guess it’s natural for us, as humans, to worry. Heck, I’m even worrying about my lunch… my lunch.
So, I think if we all could stop worrying about what we’re going to do tomorrow or the day after that, life would be a lot easier. But, I guess it’s easier said than done. If we could all just find some time in our day to just forget everything and live in the now, notice all the things around us, we’d all be happier. I know what you’re thinking, “But how can we just forget?! How can we live in the now?! How can we find happiness?!” Well, I have your answer! Check out this blog post, written by our lovely Awkward Cat, All of These [little] Things: A Journey to Finding Your Own Happiness. Read it and all of your questions will be answered. 🙂
Stay paws-itive!
-Mrs. Norris
Three Pennies for Our Thoughts 