Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Blizzard of Uncertainty

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."--Franklin Delano Roosevelt

So the new school year begins on Tuesday, and we all seem to think that we are ready for it. Yet every person I've spoken to can still admit that there is even just a tiny bit of anxiety and uncertainty in their hearts. I know that I'm not ready for it at all. All the douche bags in the halls that push me into my locker, all the girls that lean away from me when I walk past them and that give me dirty looks, and all of that goddamn work on top of everything. That's just stuff I'm not ready to go back to, or dare I say willing.

But whether or not we are ready, time continues pushing forward to Tuesday, menacingly winding down the last moments of summer. You can leave a comment using the link below and share with me how your summer was, because I can say that I am more than interested. But for right now I will tell you how mine was, and why it sort of ties in with the message I am trying to express today.

My summer was not exactly an enjoyable one. While I had time to get away from school and all the work that comes with it, I had to get a job for a car. While traveling down the painful and long road that is 'yob' hunting, I finally had to settle with Burger freakin' King because they were the only employers that were looking for a worker with limited questions asked. While I was supposed to be working with my best friends, he moved on to a better business opportunity at Carmike Cinemas, leaving me alone with the less than enjoyable company of kitchen grunts.

While this was my first thought of them, I got to know some of the better ones and soon enough I was just another grunt myself. Not really the choice I would have made if I knew going in, but it worked at that point. At least I was finally getting paid real money.

And the warm breezes of summer didn't bring adding comfort in the romance department, either. I went from getting close to a girl I know from her being friends with my sister, to loving someone who doesn't love me back, and back to the same lonely ditch I've known most of my life.

"But what's the point of this, Quiet Kid?" You ask. I suppose that the point for my whining is that I want to share some wisdom about uncertainty with you folks. Throughout this entire summer I was blindly feeling my way around--first for a job, and then for love, a better relationship with my friends--and I had no idea what the next day held in store for me. I kept moving on, like marching through a dreadful blizzard without any sense of direction, not even having a guess as to where the next light would be.

But that's the point...I kept moving. Life will always throw everything it has at us to make us hurt to point where we feel numb, but we have to keep moving. We need to tell life to shove it and go bother the people that really deserve it.

The new school year will bring new challenges, new disappointments, and new achievements. But until that last day of school comes we'll be blinding feeling our way around, clawing for anything that is concrete...for sure.

Love is for sure. Friendship is for sure. They are the lights in the blizzard, they hand reaching out for you when you are drowning. Once you have found them, you'll notice that you won't be so blind, and you won't be so much clawing as you will be reaching. Find that one person that matters and never let go.

So all those douche bags in the halls and all those girls that scoff at me should know that they won't bother me this year. To me, they are just snowflakes in the blizzard, waves in the ocean. I know I want friendship. I know I want love. I'll find, simply because I persevere. And you'll find it too, if you haven't already.

Like the aforementioned quote says, the only thing holding us back is the doubts of today. And doubts won't get us down...they are just blizzards that need to be marched through.



You've read my thoughts, now let me hear yours! Click on 'Leave Comment' below and I'll make sure I read them and respond. After all, I maybe a Quiet Kid, but we all keep things quiet from other people. Now is your chance to speak up and get a helping hand.

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I think you are a very good writer. And I always like reading your articles in the school newspaper.

I know I'm not ready for school, either. It went by so quickly. It seems like just yesterday we were getting out of school...

My summer was ok. Nothing all that exciting really happened. I didn't go on vacation or anything, and I haven't in years, so it's not that big for me. Well, I'm glad that you at least have a job, even if it's not something that you particularly enjoy, but at least you're getting paid for it.

And don't let not having a girlfriend get you down, either. I know you're probably going to think I sound old-fashioned, but I do think that dating should be reserved for marriage and should be taken seriously, because if you're just dating someone for the heck of it, it is meaningless if you're just going to break up a few months later, but what do I know.

And I really like the last few paragraphs you wrote.

I hope you have a good beginning of the school year.

heeeeeeeeeeey said...

Summer was awesome.

Youre an amazing writer
with the metaphor and what not.

school sucks

ima promote you