Sometimes I sit back and I think to myself "Wow, Kate. Your life is so sweet. Could it get any better than this?" And although most psych majors are probably jotting down my name for a lot of future therapy, I usually answer "Well, Kate, I have to agree. Sure, you could have better grades and no 9:30 classes and a few memories of September 3, 2004. But on the whole, your life is amazing and I'm glad we're having this little talk."
You see, Notre Dame, we are all living these incredibly easy lives, and most people aren't taking the time to appreciate it.
You don't have to have those little mini-conversations in your head, but please, the next time you feel like you are about to lose your mind, sit back. Think about how easy we have it. I think this approach would make everyone here quite a lot happier.
Domers, this is not stress. Stress is a job and a mortgage and your wife getting fired and your kids not having health insurance. Stress is not an orgo lab. Premeds, come on - open heart surgery isn't going to make you look back and think "Thank God I worried so much about that chem lab where we made aspirin from scratch."
As far as I know, none of my friends here are supporting themselves. We don't have to worry about our next meal or getting evicted (unless you're two very cool juniors on my football team, who actually dealt with that crisis amazingly).
Eventually, we'll have to worry about something more important than a business law exam - like whether you'll put your parents in a nursing home and how you'll afford college for your kids.
I don't think my life is necessarily easier than anyone else's, but I think I enjoy it more on a day-to-day basis than people who don't take this view. Okay, I'm a business major, but engineers, don't knock accounting until you take it, please. If you think you can go out every night as a business major and still pass your exams, you have been lied to - I am living proof of that.
But there's always time to have a LaFortune study break and watch "Old School" for the hundredth time. Nothing de-stresses like girl talk in a room dominated by a pink futon, pink curtains, or a massive collage of football pictures snipped from The Observer. And the Eagles on Monday Night Football will always take precedent over an exam.
So live a little. Worry less about reading an existentialist novel and more about building strong relationships with friends. Take a second to appreciate a cold beverage at a hot dorm room party.
And remember how sweet your life is, because no matter who you are, I bet it's great.
