It takes one bad movie...

Well, it's been a while folks. Life for me in the past few weeks has been a little...crazy, to say the least.

I'm usually a pretty stable guy, but lately so many things have been going on, and it's all those little things that build up and can really stress a guy out. I, sadly, still suffer with a rather large problem that society has come to refer to as 'high school.' My classes aren't getting any easier, and the homework only seems to pile higher and higher. I'm rather busy, and find myself with very little free time to do physics problems or write that social problems essay on overpopulation. I always tell myself, 'I'll get to it tomorrow'...and then tomorrow rolls around and, finding myself even busier than the day before, I tell myself the same thing again.

I recently made a decision - I'm still unsure as to whether or not it was a good decision - but I'm one of those people who really likes to stay active and stay in shape. And, finding myself with nothing to do all winter, I joined the wrestling team. Thanks to that decision, we can now throw constantly achy muscles to my list of inconveniences. Also, I now have two less hours every day after school, and my saturdays will be consumed by tournaments.

Money, money, money. I have none. Yup, go ahead and throw that on the list of worries. Always nagging the back of my mind are the doubts of whether I'll be able to pay for insurance this month, will I be able to pay for the gas to get home? How pathetically small will my next paycheck be? I should have mentioned earlier that weekends are pretty much the only days I have time to work, and by joining wrestling - weekly saturday tournaments - I now have two or three months worth of paychecks that will have only one shift per week. Not a very enlightneing thought.

And, as are many seniors, I'm feeling the overload of work that comes with applying for colleges and scholarships. As soon as I finish one thing, another thing must be done. Why do schools need to ask so many questions? My goodness. And it certainly doesn't help that I have a nagging mother who wants it all done NOW! I'm only human, woman!

I tend to ponder over all my troubles when I'm at work. I work at a movie theater, so I have a lot of just standing-around time behind the counter waiting for someone to buy popcorn. The other day, though, was the release of the new hit movie - I'm sure you've heard of it - New Moon. Now, I'm not even going to hesitate to say I think it may just be the most ridiculous movie ever...and I haven't even seen it! Nor do i have any intention of seeing it. I was just standing behind my counter watching floods of screaming teen girls rush in wearing their 'Team Edward' tshirts, marvelling over how dreamy Jacob Black is. Yuck.

As I watched them, i began to count how many disgruntled looking boys weree being dragged along by excited girlfriends, and in my head I laughed at all these people. I laughed at the guys, dragged along by their girlfriends, and I laughed at the girlfriends, they young children, even the older women, who all got sooooooo excited about such a silly movie...but then a sad thought hit me. As pathetic as I think New Moon or Twilight or the whole series is, as ridiculous as i thought these people were for wasting their money on this movie, they were all happier than I was - exept maybe the unfortunate boyfriends. These people were excited, they were happy, they were looking forward to something. It's been a long, long time since I've gotten that excited or had something to look forward to.

I'm not saying I'm going to go watch New Moon with my girlfriend and everything is goping to be all better - I think she'd enjoy that as little, if not less than I would - but I am emphasising that life is about having something to look forward to. i know from first hand experience that when things pile up, they really pile up, but a very special girl to me recently showed me that life - even when everything seems bad - is so, so much better when you look at things more optimistically, try to see the good in a bad situation, even if the good is a simple movie ticket. It took one bad movie to make me see how miserable I've been. What's the point of living life if you're not enjoying it, right?

So, find something you can look forward to, be excited about something, and things wont feel so bad. Next time you're in a really bad mood, think of something going good for you. Think of something good that will happen, find something good about the bad going on...even if you have to succumb to watching Twilight. Just like the bad things can pile up, when one good thing happens, another will follow, and then another.

As a final note - stay positive, look for the good...and good luck to all you poor, poor boyfriends out there who have been dragged to see a horrible movie with your girlfriend. I feel your pain.

*superman*