what's your mantra?

Mine is, "This is awesome!" Sure, reading a physics textbook may not be as awesome as playing your favorite video game or winning the lottery, but it is awesome if you think it's awesome. You have to destroy your negative thoughts somehow, and fight through stress, depression, and such. Don't be sarcastic about it, even though it may sound sarcastic. If you do it constantly, it will create a nice placebo affect which in turn, will help you plow through any troubles. Stuck in traffic? Well AWESOME! You can now take time to reflect on your day, or think about the day ahead of you and tasks that you must complete. Did you lose your last race in the track meet? AWESOME MAN! Now you know the competition is not as easy as you think, and you will train even harder. Man, did you just fail your first Spanish mid term? (Uh don't look at me!) but AWESOME! You have failed. Now get yourself together and start working hard. Failing is only a failure if you make it a failure. I could have failed that Spanish test and said "Okay I give up, Spanish and me are history", but no, I told myself that I enjoyed Spanish, and that I think it is awesome (it really is though), which in turn helped get me through and pass the rest of my important material.

You can turn doldrums around. Another personal example, I tried out for Baylor club frisbee team sophomore year, but at the time I could not throw a flick to save my life. End result? I didn't make the cut. AWESOME! Now I can spend my 7.5 hours doing other things that will benefit me, and I would not need to worry about the hassle of meeting up every evening/ morning to practice in the dreaded heat. AND, I ended up working on my flick this summer and got magnificently better at it (since I found out my flaw). Now I have a choice to try out again (haha) or to just use my new found abilities in casual games with friends. What will I do? It is personal but I did not feel like I would fit in the team for some reason, that I would kinda have to try to fit in. Some of them seem to serious! All  I want is to have fun and have an awesome time. You will find me playing intramurals :)

Some things though, you can not take too far. Morbid happenings and devastating events, as bad as they are, shouldn't be proclaimed as awesome. People will look down upon that, and it's not like you would think such things are awesome anyway so I will leave it at that.

Most of this is based on the self. You probably wont actually admit to someone that failing a test is awesome, or that studying is awesome -- you will probably try to conform and falsely admit that failing a test is depressing and studying is boring. Did you just hear those negative tones resonate in your eardrums? Yeah well its time to shake them out and let them be echoes of the past, starting now! You need a positive outlook on life in order to have a greater chance of that actually happening. A person who looks on life negatively searches for other means (often times very detrimental such as drugs and violence) will probably live a negative life. Don't let that be you (sic'em), because I am not letting that be me.


Next time you think something is stale, encourage yourself to keep it up by gently reminding yourself of your own words of wisdom. Carve your own path and stick to it. Start now, as this is a fresh new school year. Exciting, fun, cool, terrific, and, awesome! :)

-KT