When my phone died two minutes into my nightly post-dinner chores I’ll admit I panicked a little. Of course, I could’ve run upstairs, grabbed my charger, and resumed business as usual, but it made no sense. My hands were already covered in suds and a watery mixture of tonight's dinner. So, I accepted my fate and commenced my definite 30-45 minutes of hell in my silenced kitchen. It was almost seamless how my psyche changes as soon as I let it go. I was “off”.
It’s almost as if my mind was designed to function without a phone strapped to my hand at every second. Absentmindedly, I instantly turned to singing and thinking about my day, but there was a difference. I realize that difference was mindfulness. Instead of the singing that I do in the car or the singing I do while moving from one task to another, I was using my brain to be meticulous about the notes I places and conscious of my breathing. Instead of thinking about my day as a vague to do list of checked and unchecked items, I was reflecting on the contents of my day, what it had meant, and what tomorrow count possibly entail and mean.
At a time in my life where it feels like everyone is rushing and hustling to this end destination and nobody has informed me on what we’re doing and where we’re going, I realized the missing piece to my sanity was mindfulness. This reason why I have no real drive to get these college essays done, or no motivation to put my all into the last few remaining high school classes I have, and the reason I feel overwhelmed every single moment of the day. It’s like I’ve let myself be a backseat passenger in the most important part of my life thus far. All this time I was wishing for some kind of magical three day vacation away from my life that would surely get me on track and have me in the right headspace, but I realize all I really need is a step back from my life, aka my phone, for at least a few minutes every day to have my head right. So in the spirit of that, I’ll make a list of some life changes written in the third person that I bet will be applicable to most people, or at least seniors going through college mayhem.- Please use your planner. You even got a cute one!! You can’t possibly remember everything you have coming up, everything you have to do, and plan things that you don’t even know you have to do yet without it. It’ll literally save your life, and your grades, and your sanity.
- Make time for more beautiful things. Take some pictures, take a second to look at the leaves, drive around town you (hopefully) won’t be living here next year.
- Drink smartly. Coffee that is. You’ve been getting into coffee recently and it's actually kind of worrying. Maybe try getting some sleep?
- Clean! Get your space together once and for all so it doesn’t bug you every day and so you do the “I’m anxious about everything, so I’m going to clean to regain a tiny bit of control” clean.
- Go out with your friends, even if it is hours in Starbucks writing essays together at least you can suffer together.
- Get off your phone once in awhile! You’ll be surprised how clear you think when you aren’t preoccupied with checking twitter, or sending a streak on snapchat, or texting back someone. No more mindless scrolling. Things can wait.
- Fill random extra minutes with something constructive. Rather than five minutes of twitter time, you could have five minutes of conversation with a friend or even a stranger, or five minutes of journaling.
- Try not to procrastinate on college stuff. It’s pretty destructive, but set aside hours when you’re not tired, not stressed, and just work it out. You’ll be thankful for it come deadlines.
