My life can be described as one long continuous aha up until this point. From the moment I realized I can’t always please everyone to hanging off a cliff and realizing taking that short cut wasn’t the best idea. I’m still not sure what to make of all these “aha!” moments. Either I have experienced a lot and have learned a lot or I should slow down a bit instead of diving head first into everything. Either way, I am who I am because of all these moments. Throughout our lifetime we learn a great deal of things. We learn through school, through our experiences, and sometimes when we least expect it we come to a moment when it all of a sudden makes senses. We call these aha moments.
It started like any other evening; I plopped in front of the computer to check my email and such. I went through the usual routine of logging into AIM, logging onto various websites to read the news for the day, and checking my emails. My friend Mike sends me an instant message, a casual message just like any other. I usually hold about 3 to 4 conversations at a time whenever I am logged in. I had been having a bad week and I asked him how do you do it? I end up ranting over the things that have been annoying to me in the past week, with friends and work. In all the years that I have known him, I have never seen him get mad over anything. He tells me he is usually apathetic about everything. He just doesn’t concern over meaningless things. He said he pretty much just doesn’t care about most of the stuff that goes on around him. Unless it has a negative affect on him he doesn’t let stuff bother him.
After that conversation with him I started to think about all the things that were bothering me. Are these things that are relevant or were these things that I can let go and have no affect on my life. Things like how friends were always late, how some rarely pick up their phones or return calls were annoying me. I sat back and evaluated how much did these things really affect me. Much to my surprise it wasn’t the end of the world. At that moment I realized there is no point is getting bothered by such insignificant things. They don’t affect your well being or life. There are so many things to worry about already, why add to the list.
At the moment I realized I shouldn’t let things get to me, I became a much happier person. It felt as though I had all this stress lifted away. What’s the point of getting angry? Does it change what has already happened? Instead of dealing with what ever is thrown at you, you end up making the situation worse. A couple of years ago I got into an accident while in Berkeley. I had just bought the car, two weeks old and it still had the new car smell. I was so furious at the person who rear ended me that I almost threw him off the bridge. Well as much as I thought I loved the car, I don’t even have it anymore. I go through cars every year or two. Fast forward to about a month ago, again I was rear ended in a car I...
