Weather Changes, Mood Changes

I’ve always gone through my life looking out the window and deciding what my mood is going to be based on the current weather situation. There are biological reasons behind this, but in general, warm sunny days make me feel exactly that, warm and sunny. I’m a much more pleasant person when it’s nice out, and I’d be willing to bet most people are that way too. Warm weather, sun rays and water have always been my favorite combination of things whether I’m on a lake or the ocean, I’m always having a good time. It’s much harder to walk from place to place in a grouchy mood when its 85 degrees and brilliantly sunny than it is when it’s 40 and rainy.

That’s why I moved south. The weather is so much warmer earlier in the year and there isn’t 5 feet of snow every winter pulling my mood as low as it gets. Growing up in the north was great, but the southern move has done wonders for my day to day outlook on life. I’ve been a much more positive person and go out of my way to be outside enjoying my time, rather than sulking inside because it’s too cold to go outside. After graduation I have no plans of moving back up north, because I’ve never really been a fan of regressing in my life and going back to something lesser than I have now.

So if you live up north and find yourself constantly wondering what you can do to make yourself a happier and more joyful person, move south! The people are friendly, the food is good, and the weather is much more appealing than what you’re used to.

Different Types of Seniors

Coming down the final stretch in college, everyone has a different major, different friends, different social lives, and different goals. We all have aspirations and places we want to go, and we all have different ideas on the best route to get there. So, being a junior in college, I have a lot of decisions to make and a lot of things to finish up before I’ll be ready to leave college and get out into the real world. Like I said, everyone has different goals and different ways to get there, so everyone’s senior year can be expected to look a little different.

I was quite diligent about getting done what I needed to get done for graduation pretty early on and I didn’t fail or have to drop out of any courses, so I maintained everything I needed to as an underclassmen. So going into my senior year, I will have one semester of work that will complete the rest of my major courses, minor courses, and general education requirements. So my second semester is only there to get the rest of my credits required to graduate. As my advisor so nicely put, “You can take like 8 gyms if you want to.” I’m going to be drifting through my second semester senior year, giving myself a lot more opportunity for looking for jobs and such.

Then there is another type of senior. There is the “Oh my, I have a lot to get done and not a lot of time to do it” type of senior. This is the person who either had way too much fun as a freshman and failed a couple classes, changed their major really late and needs to make up a ton of classes, or somehow ended up making a lot of poor choices and is now in a bad situation.

Looking around at everyone scrambling for classes senior year and planning out the future beyond that makes me realize that I went through my college years with plenty of involvement to have a great time, but also committed enough of my time to my studies in order to make sure I would be ready to graduate on time and with plenty of room for extra classes. So, bottom line, have as much fun as you want, but make sure you get your work done when you need to. Some day you’ll thank yourself for your own work.

Heading Home

Going to school far away from home has had its ups and downs, but returning back home is always a good feeling. When I was looking at colleges I knew I wanted to go south because I was tired of the long cold winters, but doing this involved moving 11 hours away from home. I was happy to do this knowing that eventually my parents would also be moving south, but sometimes I do actually miss my northern life.

Every semester I’m working hard, because that’s what math majors do. If you’re not working hard, you’re probably also failing. I’m also really busy with other social obligations and work, so exhaustion tends to set in fairly quick and I feel like I need a break. I get caught up in life and worry too much about the small things and forget to look at the big picture and realize how good my life is. I get overwhelmed and frustrated with tests and feel over my head in work, so the ability to get away from school work for a while is a good mental health break.

So here we are, the day before spring break and my state of mind is glorious. I find myself trapped for a while, and then as soon as the day comes to leave I change my outlook on life and can’t wait to get home. The only thing between me and freedom is an 11 hour drive into the cold. Going somewhere warm for spring break is generally the ideal, but sometimes you just need to go home and remember where you came from to appreciate where you are.

So enjoy your spring break, be safe, and appreciate the time you can spend without worrying about school work, because it’s coming back!

Here it comes… Life.

Life. Ain’t it just something. Everybody is born, and every person lives an individual life from that point on. For a large majority of us, the beginning of our lives seem rather planned out, and I fall right into that category. I was born into my family and was watched over for the first few years of my life, as babies need done. Once you start to grow up a little, you are sent out into a new world of school. It is planned for you and you really don’t make many decisions for yourself because frankly an infant doesn’t have that mental capability yet. So you go to preschool and then kindergarten and then elementary and so on. You go to school where you live or you go to a private school that your parents choose for you. The only things you really choose for yourself are what sports you want to play, what interests you in school, and who you choose to have as your friends. There aren’t many big decisions you have to make, until you get to college. First, you choose where you want to go to school, but that was still part of the plan from the time you were born. Most parents have kids and intend on them going to school and graduating college, but the planning stops there.

So here I am, a college junior, down to the second half of my college life and thinking about what is coming next. When your’e in elementary school, middle school is next. When your’e in high school, college is next. When your’e in college… well, there really isn’t anything on the schedule for “next”. This is where you get to take everything you’ve acquired in your life and put it to use. You get to be your own person, totally independent, no planned schedule for you. And guess what? It’s terrifying.

My whole life there has been a plan, and I’ve come to the end of that timeline. Thinking about what comes next isn’t easy, because there are so many different routes to take. Being involved in a lot of different organizations might sound great, but it gives you so many options of things to take and run with for the rest of your life. Everybody wants to be happy, and in the end, happiness is different for every person. Some want money, some want a family, and others want something totally different. Figuring out what you want for yourself isn’t easy, but I don’t think it’s supposed to be. And honestly, I don’t know if I’ll ever be certain of what exactly I want to do with my life. After all, I’ll never forget the time my own father, who has given me countless opportunities and cared for me my whole life with never ending support, looked at me and said, “I’m a middle aged guy with a family and honestly, I don’t know what I want to do with my life.” It just made me think that you can look at someone who has a nice home, a great family, a solid job and never know that they still haven’t found exactly what they want to do with their life. So why should I have to know now?

So, don’t put too much stress on yourself to find what you want to do with your life right now. Surround yourself with good people, work hard, and your passions will lead you to find your happiness.

Southern Snow

I’m from Connecticut, so winters have always been white. We’ve even had halloween cancelled because it snowed 11 inches in October, so cold weather and I have always had a relationship. Going outside has always been a hassle in the winter because you don’t want to dress up like an eskimo just to go to the store, but that’s what comes with living in the north east. After living in New England for 18 years, I decided that it was time to go south, so I came to college in North Carolina. I knew there were still winters here, but I also knew that it was going to be warmer than home, so that was enough for me.

Little did I know, it would always be a good show when it snowed in the south. As soon as there is a snow flake in the forecast, everyone goes into panic mode immediately. All organizations are ready to close, and everyone prepares for a blizzard. Being from up north, we could get a foot of snow and still go to work and school the next day. Down south, I have come to find out that is most certainly not the case. If there is anything more than a half inch, schools, stores and other organizations will begin posting closed signs.

Northern living involves driving in the weather a lot, so it really isn’t a problem for me to get around when it snows. However, that isn’t the case for everyone. After 2 or 3 inches of snow, driving around down south becomes dangerous, and it isn’t me that I’m afraid of. I can’t go out on the road without seeing a new accident every 2 miles because southern people don’t know how to drive in bad weather. There are tires spinning all over the place, cars sliding sideways, piles of snow in the middle of intersections, and safety is nowhere to be found.

It’s always a good time when it snows in the south because I get to sit back and watch as chaos commences. Closures, accidents, and worry is all over the place, but the northerners are carrying on with every day life.

Unsophisticated Animals

This past weekend I was graced with the opportunity to go to an institution of which I had not heard of before. Nor had I heard of anything like it. I went to Lazy 5 Ranch in North Carolina and it was one of the best experiences I’ve had in a while, and an eye opening one at that. Basically, imagine taking a zoo and releasing all the animals into one big plot of land, and then allowing people to enter with the animals. Actually, that’s exactly what it is. And it’s great! There were everything from camels to giraffes to kangaroos, and I got to touch almost every one of them.

Now, if you know me, you know I love animals. So this was an absolute blast. I got to drive through a park filled with exotic animals, feed them and pet them. It doesn’t sound that great, but have you ever touched a zebra? Probably not. Have you ever seen a baby kangaroo get into its mother’s pouch? Once again, probably not. But I have!

The animals were always ready to be fed, so as soon as you held out your hand, they opened their mouths and stuck out their tongues. Now, I had never seen the tongue of a bull or a buffalo, but trust me, it doesn’t look or smell nice in the slightest bit. If I’m going to be honest, I saw some disgusting parts of animals that I hadn’t thought existed. But take a look for yourself, so here’s a bunch of pictures for you to enjoy of my one of a kind day trip!

Pet Peeves

Everyone has a pet peeve. There are always going to be things that people do that just don’t sit right with someone else. Well, I have a plethora of pet peeves. I spend a lot of my day looking around at other people thinking, “How can you live your life that way?” So, here’s a brief list of some things I hate about people.

For starters, first impressions mean a lot in human interaction. The way that some people dress drives me absolutely crazy. I’ll walk around in public and look at people and think about what they were thinking when they got dressed. Seriously, did you get dressed in a costume store with the lights off? Every morning people wake up, get ready, take a look in the mirror and have to decide, “Is this what I want to look like today?” I imagine their morning process and cannot fathom how the answer to that question was yes. I don’t know what type of person they wanted to portray themselves as to others, but it certainly isn’t what I would have gone for.

Communication is also a very important part of human interaction, since it’s how we get ideas across to one another. This is simply going up to another human being and having a conversation, but some people seem to have lost this ability. I don’t know how awkwardness came about in the human gene pool, but some people are just downright awkward. You can walk over with a big smile and give a friendly greeting, but you’ll only receive a stare like a deer caught in headlights. Who taught you to do that? Your parents? Your elementary school? Just say hello back and talk about something relevant! At what point did someone start teaching, “When someone greets you in a social situation, look at them like your’e lost and don’t say anything.” Coming from someone who enjoys a good conversation, this is quite irritating.

Then there’s all the small things that just rub me the wrong way. Loud sneezing, dragging your feet, monotone speaking, lack of hygiene, slow driving, simple grammar mistakes, and the list goes on and on. For some reason I was born a critic, so picking out things that I don’t like about someone comes far easier than it should. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a people person. I love being with other people and spending time in social situations, but there’s constantly a little voice in my head that looks around and says, “Seriously?” when people push my repertoire of little ‘how to annoy Scott’ buttons. A lot of the time, I just feel like this:

Always Listen to Dad

My father has always been a great giver of advice, and frankly he ends up being right most of the time. I don’t know how he does it, but I can only hope to be half the father he has been to me. Well, once again, he was right. Over Christmas break I was home with my two sisters and my dad frequently told me to go get my flu shot. I knew I needed to because I didn’t last year and actually got the flu, so I didn’t want to put myself in those shoes again. Multiple times a week he would walk up to me and ask if I had gotten my flu shot and then tell me how easy it is to do so, but why would I listen to him? If I listened to him all the time I wouldn’t make mistakes to learn lessons from. So I don’t get my flu shot, go back to school and pow, the flu attacked. I felt sicker than sick, and hated myself for it. Friday was the beginning of it, and it was the last night of rush. You get the feeling mid-day and just know what’s coming. This was a big weekend that was supposed to be a lot of fun for a large portion of campus, rush was over and bid day was here. It’s one of the best days of the year. I mean, it’s pretty much a holiday. I woke up that morning at 6:30 with the mindset and excitement level to have a day full of amazing memories, but my body disagreed. My bones were sore, my joints were aching, I was freezing and shivering while sweating profusely at the same time, but I was set on having a good day. So festivities began early, and my body decided to start to tell me how much it hated me. The pain was awful, but I didn’t want to miss anything from this outrageously fun celebration. By 1:00 in the afternoon, I threw in the towel. I had been going around all day trying to have fun, but my health just wouldn’t allow it. I went back to my room, got in bed, and proceeded to stay there for the next 48 hours.

During this period, there was no such thing as happiness. I was in bed for the whole weekend, watching snap stories and Facebook posts about how much fun everyone was having. Worst FOMO of my life. All I wanted to do was go outside and run around celebrating with the rest of Greek Life, but instead I was laying in my bed, hot, cold, sweating, aching, hurting, and miserable. I couldn’t eat or drink anything because it would come right back up, so I had no energy either. I had a nice long Netflix marathon of random movies I thought I wanted to see, and didn’t enjoy a single second of it.

The week rolled in and I was still sick, and my lovely girlfriend who took care of me this whole time was also now sick, so classes weren’t going to happen. I couldn’t even eat a cracker and hold down a sip of water, how was I going to sit through a Calculus 3 class? Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday went by, and I started to get back on my feet. By now I had missed 3 Calc 3 classes and knew I was way behind. Calc 3 isn’t a class you want to fall behind in, because catching up alone feels like your’e running a horse race on foot. Can you figure out what the equation for the 3-D graph of a hyperboloid of two sheets is by yourself? Neither can I. I’ve got multiple homework assignments to make up and no notes to reference. Looks like I’ve got a lot of work to do.

So now I’ve missed one of the best weekends of the year, and have a towering stack of Calculus 3 homework waiting for me to tackle. All because I got the flu and was sick for a couple days. But back to the fantastic man that I call my father, he was right yet again. If I had just listened to him and gone to get my flu shot I would have had an awesome weekend of fun rather than lay in bed miserable, and I wouldn’t have a ton of hard make up work to do. Getting a flu shot is a combined half hour of total work that includes making a phone call and driving to let someone stick a needle in my arm, but I chose not to listen and was properly rewarded for doing so. Bottom line here, always listen to Dad.

OCD

How often do you worry about things being exactly the way you want them? Whether it’s making your bed, organizing your desk, or simply keeping things in your pockets – OCD is there to complicate things. Growing up I found out that I had Tourette’s Syndrome in the third grade. Obsessive compulsive disorder often goes along with Tourette’s, so I was also working with that. ADHD followed quickly after, so I’m at no shortage of mental disorders. There are no real solutions or “cures” to these, so here’s a little bit about life through the eyes of a 20 year old college student with OCD.

Think about making your bed. How much time and thought are you actually going to put into folding a couple sheets and blankets onto a rectangular foam pad? Probably not much – I mean your’e a busy person and have a lot to do in your day, right? There isn’t time to waste on such a small detail – wrong. OCD says you can’t just slap together a couple sheets because it doesn’t fit right that way. You need to start from the beginning, take everything off and make all the corners line up and have every edge be straight. It must hang off either side of the bed the same amount, because imbalance is not something OCD is fond of. The pillows have to be fluffed and it has to look magazine-front-cover ready. If your bed isn’t made straight, the rest of your day has a solid chance of being ruined.

Now, what do you carry around with you? Is it different every day depending on how you feel when you are marching out of your room? Do you keep them mixed up in a bag or put them in whatever pockets are free? Once again, wrong! Every day, OCD says I must be equipped with exactly what I need to get through the day, and consistency is key. My right front pocket is for my phone and my car keys. Why? I’m right handed, and those are the most frequently grabbed items, so the front right pocket is all about efficiency. The front left pocket is for my HPU passport, a gum pack and Blistex. Not just any gum pack, it has to be flat – because who wants a giant shape protruding from their leg? Certainly not OCD. The Blistex will always be the pink container, because the blue is too minty. I want my lips soft and moisturized, I don’t need to taste like a peppermint patty all day. As for my passport – it gets used to get on campus and swipe into buildings, so it has to be relatively easy to access – but it’s not front right pocket worthy. For my back right pocket, that’s for my wallet. I don’t consider myself a big shopper by any means, I’m a college student for crying out loud, it’s not like I have anything to spend anyway. I don’t really need my wallet for most of the day, but preparation is important. I have to carry my license, credit and debit cards, some cash etc. So keep it small and organized, but make sure everything is accounted for. OCD only allows for these allotted items to be carried or anxiety and mental anguish will consume my day.

Some might look at this and say “wow, that must be awful!” but alas, my life is organized. The whole problem of losing personal belongings isn’t much of an issue with OCD, because everything has its place. Things must be in order, facing the same way, and be the same size. Clutter gives me rashes and causes most of my mental breakdowns, so my days are spent staying away from it and constantly organizing things around me. If I go into someone’s room and there is stuff all over the place, nausea commences and I start putting things in better places.

And that’s just brushing the surface. OCD goes into every aspect of my life, but I’d need to write a novel in order to portray it accurately. So there, a short overview of a few things that OCD complicates in my life.

And in case you haven’t caught on yet, here…