Look up

Saw this on Design For Mankind today:

“By lifting your field of vision to chimney level, your body is able to lift your mood.”

Via Alex Ostrowski

I’ve been feeling pretty crummy lately, just burnt out and frustrated, but when I saw this and followed its advice, my mood changed instantly.

I remembered a post I wrote two years ago on my old website while I was working at a big newspaper in Arizona. I’d like to share it because it’s sort of how I’m feeling now and also because … I got nothing else.

September 2, 2006

Back in college, someone once told me that there’s an easy way to tell the freshmen from the seniors on Ring Road: Freshmen look up. Seniors look down. It’s true. Like, when you’re a freshman, you feel so remarkably small. And your new world seems so big, so endless. So you jump into it. And swim. But slowly, the excitement starts to fade (tall shiny buildings, Asian boys galore — who cares?) And instead of gazing in awe, it’s more like, ‘Just get me to my class. No, I don’t want to join Kappa Kappa Kappa. No, I don’t want to apply for a credit card to get a free paper weight…ooh…or do I?’ And toward the end, as scared as you might be, you start to feel like there’s something even bigger waiting for you somewhere.

But now, three years out of college, I’m realizing that it’s easy to get stuck in the same cycle. You should have seen how obnoxious I was at my first internship in Palm Springs. One of my first assignments was to tag along with this education reporter to a school board meeting. (Um, have you ever been to a school board meeting? Imagine death, only with Roman numerals). While he was driving me back to the newsroom, I was giddy. “Oh my gosh. I can’t believe you do this for a living. It totally doesn’t seem like work,” I said. He looked at me with disgust.

This morning, wearing a wrinkled shirt and holding a can of Red Bull, I gave a sluggish nod to the parking attendant and walked, head down, to my building. And I thought about the whole freshman/senior thing. And it scared me. This ‘pond’ I’m in right now is pretty freakin’ gigantic and there’s no way I’ve already outgrown it. And then I thought, ‘Hmmmmmmmm. Maybe it’s not the pond that needs chaging, but the fish’ (yes, I’m rolling my eyes at myself too). I don’t know. I don’t really have any more answers, but I do know that in college, the most wonderful parts came much after the newness faded. When I stopped caring so much about doing everything and started letting go, embracing the people and places I’d already found.

So, relax. Slow down. Smile.

And, look up.