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I strongly dislike serious people. They always have some place to go, and they’re always racing around. I look around in amazement at how my fellow students become so absorbed in extracurricular activities that they never have time to sit back and reflect upon their lives. I have a favorite quote that goes something like, "Don’t treat every situation as a life or death matter; ‘cause you’ll die many times." I think of this when I see people fretting over the smallest things, and nearly going insane over them. If you never sit back and reflect, you become consumed by your life. You start to worry about the small things, which deserve some attention, but really aren’t that important. A classic example of people taking things way too seriously occurs when someone gets bad grades on their report card and treats it like a national catastrophe. While grades really do matter, they should never make or break your day. So what if your parents scold you for not doing as well as they wanted you to? It’s not the end of the world and it sure won’t matter in 10 years. You won’t even remember what your grades were in 10 years. Another school related matter people take way too seriously is taking tests. What’s the big deal? There’s no way in the world that I could count the number of times I’ve seen people become hysterical over tests they did not take. You know, "Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere." So why worry? All they have to do is cram all the bits of knowledge they can in a five minute period, and suck it up. There’s no need for the theatrics. There’s also the SAT’s. This ranks at the top of things people take way too seriously. Sure the SAT’s go a long way toward getting you into college, but some people act like their lives are ruined when they don’t receive the scores that they wanted. Furthermore, some people are embarrassed about their scores because they are afraid other people will think they’re stupid for having such low scores. I know, because I’m one of those people. To be honest, I felt pretty stupid for getting 1100’s. But I got over it, because I realized it didn’t really tell how smart I was; it just told me how well I can take a test. Getting into college is a consuming aspect of pretty much every student’s senior year at George Mason. It can be a hair-pulling time, but it doesn’t have to be. I see some people around school worrying about getting into Harvard or Yale like their lives depended on getting in there.. I really don’t care what the name of the college I go to is. I just want to be happy there. I want to be at a place where people don’t necessarily have a place to go all the time. So what if I’m not going to go to Harvard, or Yale or even a UVa-type school? Will going to UVa determine how happy I am for the rest of my life? I really don’t think so. While choosing the college you go to is an important decision to make for an 18 year-old, it shouldn’t consume one day of your life. If you worry too much about the future, you lose sight of what’s in the present. You never see what’s going on around you, and you miss out on the little things. Life’s all about how happy you are
and the kinds of memories you make, not what college you went to and how
much money you make every year. Honestly, if I’m happiest being a janitor
and driving a used Mazda Miata for the rest of my life, that’s what I’ll
do. A lot of people believe that obtaining enormous amounts of riches and
living in heavenly palaces will make them happy. People like that are missing
what’s really important in life. If you asked me, I’d take the life of
a happy truck driver over a depressed movie star any day.
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