stop complaining.

Lately I have been quite depressed. I whine about having too long a to-do-list while stressing out on upcoming papers and exams. I question why people say the time in college is the best time of life, a worry-free honeymoon. Indulging in this misery I conclude that being a successful college student away from home requires superpowers.

Unending applications, numerous deadlines are of course nerve racking;but attending classes, finishing homework, passing exams are not enough, grabbing all extra credit opportunities, striving for good GPAs and fighting for a spot in the Dean's List are basics, how about extra-curricular activities and community service for building the resume? part-time jobs for the desparate extra cash? what about the necessary networking, healthy socializing and checking my facebook? we are not on a one-man's land. Oh, should I cook or dine out? My 2-week-old laundry needs to be done, and I haven't done my weekly vacuuming and that toilet bowl is crying out to me! Ah, and don't forget to call home.

From personal psychological growth to meeting the realistic economic social needs all cramped together, but you only have 24 hours a day 7 days a week and the next semester is only weeks away and the next thing you know you are planning a very fruitful, not necessarily pleasurable, summer.

Today, when I slowed down and stopped frowning, I see the sun shining, the smile on my professor's wrinkled face, I think about what I am doing and what I may achieve and I remember why I picked my courses, why I chose this life. I appreciate what I have, I enjoy life, I smile.

Take the time to step back and stop complaining.

p.s. God gave us lips and tongues to praise Him and say good things( :

better lives make us worse?

The maintanence guys in my apartment building are really nice, friendly, helpful, though old and uneducated.
I say to myself, isn't it too bad that these people were unfortunate not to have a chance to go to school and have a better job? because at school or work, people we meet are not like them, I'd love if they are the people I deal with.
But, then I think, maybe it's because they have never had a chance to be at institutions like we do that kept them unconteminated, pure and simple.
They might not be the same if their lives were different.

How much has the interactions with aggressive, competitive people and system corrupted us?
Why is it the higher we climb the more we forget about the basics and where we come from?

It is time to step back, to observe, to evaluate who we have become and compare it to who we want to be.