"Smile Time!" - a math professor at Western

I'm fallin' behind on this whole blogging thing. But let's start with a significant life-changing event I recently had. Hooray!

Well, one night I was particularly frustrated and tired of being unhappy and stressed, and I was frustrated in general with myself for my inability to be happy. Just as I thought my life couldn't get any worse, I got a call from my roommate the next morning saying our apartment was full of mold and water damage, and her parents weren't letting her live there, and when my mom found out about the condition of our apartment (which we hadn't seen), she wouldn't let me live there either.

So I had two problems: finding another apartment 3 weeks before school started and getting out of a lease both my roommate and I had signed. We had also paid the landlady about $700 for the security deposit and for rent. After contemplating my problems and realizing it was mostly my fault for never looking at the apartment and for pushing my roommate to sign the lease, I broke down completely. I was depressed and miserable and sick for 2 and a half days. During that time, and before, Jon was always a great help and I owe him my sanity. He always tried to calm me down, and he never freaked out when I was crying while I tried to talk to him over the phone. I realized then that although I had made one of the biggest mistakes in my life by getting myself and my roommate into this apartment mess, at least I had made the right decision, roughly 11 months ago, to hook up with Jon.

And THEN, that same night that I had a bit of a nervous break-down, I over-heard my parents arguing and discovered a bit of information that I could have done without which further pushed me over the edge.

I eventually went to Bellingham and found another apartment, and it looks like we'll get out of the lease and get most of our money back. As I looked back on the days previous, I realized that I had been so upset and stressed for nothing because everything turned out alright. Then I realized that most of my worrying is for nothing. Ironically, a friend had just pointed that out and I brushed it off.

When the weight of this whole apartment problem was lifted from my shoulders, I realized how relieved and happy I felt, and I decided that it's so much better to be happy and not depressed/stressed all the time. That's not the life I want to lead. As the Jewish new year (Rosh Hashanah) approaches, I'm promising myself that I'm going to change. I'll do my best to not be a stressed, worried, depressed mess all the time. It's just not worth it. I want to live life instead of worrying about it. It's time to be happy.

--Elie