I am just about a week away from going home and considering what kind of craziness has transpired in my life for the past month, I'm glad to be heading back to the California sun.
I don't know that I've ever felt any less appreciative of Chicago at any point in my life. I've only visited the city once this winter and it was for an internship interview that went nowhere. The rest of my time was mainly spent in classes or waking up early to go to work and it's been simply exhausting. And cold.
The cold has been biting. I must have lost a layer of blubber on my skin or something because walking around unbundled-up is no longer as tolerable an activity as it once was for me in below-freezing temperatures. I used to take on the chill with a pair of tights as the only barrier from frostbite, but now I put on two coats, a scarf and a hat, preparing for Snowpocalypse 2013.
On top of everything, today was just a bundle of wackiness.
After handling the rains and cold temperatures pretty well, I was on my walk home from my final class of the day when I decided to take an idiotic turn on a longer path back to the dorm. Thinking I could shave off some time by taking a less effective shortcut, I ended up trudging through mud and sliding on ice, finally culminating in a giant puddle surrounded by icy shrubbery.
I had two choices: 1. Turn back and take the longer route around the very shortcut I was using; or 2. Continue on the shortcut and hope I don't submerge myself (and my boots) in a watery sinkhole death.
Well, needless to say, I am a lazy loser, which meant I chose option two without a second thought.
My boots and my person were safe, let's be frank. So my fears were not met.
However, I had no fear for my iPhone and that was what, in fact, became submerged in the watery depths of the giant muddy puddle.
Stella (that's the name of my phone) fell face-first into the puddle and for a moment the world stood still as I screamed into the puddle to my dad (who was on the other line of the phone at the time) "HOLD ON, I JUST DROPPED MY PHONE IN WATER. OH GOD."
Stella's face was fine, but somehow her audio functions had been messed up and for the next hour I freaked out and tried to factor in when and how I could find the time to get a replacement iPhone.
Then she dried up, and all was well. And the winter's torture of destroying my Stella's speaker function was over.
Well, where did that leave me?
After quite a few weeks of feeling entirely at the mercy of Murphy's Law, it actually felt indescribably amazing to have my phone resurrect itself from a puddle grave. I doomed my poor companion to a life of limited senses and yet she returned completely ready to be used in just a matter of an hour.
And I guess I'd like to think of this as a metaphor for my life right now. I've been feeling pressured and stressed and panicked because there has been so much to do, so little to look forward to and so long to wait for anything worth experiencing. I've been pitying myself and little did I know that the dissatisfaction was just leading me down a road of continued difficulties.
Essentially, the way I see it at least, I managed to bring about my own sadness because I kept letting stupid things like drowning my phone completely alter my mood.
Because otherwise today was pretty stellar. I have a lead on a few internships for the summer. I am well on my way to returning home for spring break. I've done the great majority of my work for the end of the quarter. If anyone has any right to be lamenting at the world, it's people in underprivileged countries or with terminal diseases.
The level of my life dissatisfaction should not warrant complaining. Or self-pitying.
Especially when a fix is as simple as a $100 replacement phone or an hour of patience.
So I'm suggesting that everyone who reads this just takes a second to look around them, calculate what in fact they're pissed or sad about, and then measure that against the grand scheme of things. We really have no right to be complaining over stupid junk that happens in our lives when in the long run we are lucky people - I'm not speaking for everyone of course, but certainly for myself.
In a week I'll be home with people who love me. I'll be free of the trials of this quarter. I'll have quite a bit to look forward to. And there will be sun.
The sun being both a literal object and a metaphor. Because I've been contending with winter for far too long and I'm ready to embrace sunnier weather and a sunnier disposition.
Thank you, Stella, for coming back to life and teaching me how to smile again.
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