Sunshine and the Things That Make Us Feel Good

I would find it hard to believe if I met someone who just didn’t like the sun. With the summer daze ahead of us, I’m looking forward to those sunny times in Wilmington where the rain is limited and the beach breeze is bountiful. For me personally, the sunshine during the Spring months before the humidity takes over makes me feel so good and warm all over. It’s almost like I’m Superman and I literally feed off of the Vitamin D energy that those yellow rays are slapping on me. It got me wondering though, how does the warm sun rank amongst some of the things that just make you happy to be alive and appreciate the simple things in life?

So. Thirsty. You know that feeling when you feel like you’ve been walking through a desert all day and you can’t remember the last bit of fluid that you consumed? Yeah, that feeling. That’s definitely a sensation that ranks up there for me. Quenching your thirst on an unbearably hot day with a cold glass of whatever-your-heart-desires feels so good. I’m not gonna lie, even soda can do that feeling justice, and it happened to me last Saturday morning at about 2:30 a.m. when my friend bought me a large Sierra Mist from Taco Bell. Let’s just say, my thirst was quenched, and I was more than satisfied.

Massages, back rubs, tickle rubs and the like all are my weakness. That’s a sensation that’s hard to compete with especially considering the high energy lifestyles that we all live day in and day out. I’ve always been a very touchy feely person and having someone give me any of those services is hard to come by, because it seems almost EVERYONE wants it to be done to them. One feeling that I really appreciate though, is when you’re able to get that perfect scratch on that irritating itch. Your whole body feels at ease and it’s almost as if that lingering, light throbbing sensation that you get after you’ve obliterated that itch is saying “thank you” over and over again.

Running running running running running running faster and faster hurry hurry hurry HURRY! You make it. And finally…..release. You haven’t been to the bathroom all day. You just finished that 3 hour movie and you’ve consumed a lot of water or other beverages but you didn’t want to miss any of the action on the big screen. But all of a sudden, it hits you. Like a waterfall being blocked off by two little pieces of wood. Not enough to hold it. That’s right, that feeling you get when you finally get to urinate, or pee for the first time in a looooong time. I’m not sure how girls feel after an event like that, but for the guys out there, you all know that little shiver-quirk-awkward-shake-rattle thing we do after we’ve let out our demons. It’s a good feeling. So pee, I appreciate you.

The simple things in life that can please us are way too long to name. They can be emotional, physical, and even spiritual. Think about the simple things in life the next time you’re stressing over exams or life in general and hold on to those feelings. Share the good laughs with your friends and remember that it’s always the simple things in life that get the job done :-)

Imagine the Unimaginable

Every day when we wake up, it’s a brand new day. Fresh, brand new, straight out the box, new car smell, new shoe smell new. A famous quote by Eleanor Roosevelt goes something like this: “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why we call it ‘The Present’.” We have no idea what a new day is going to bring. But the unbelievable possibilities that a new day can bring are wondrous. What if a new day brought something so new that you couldn’t even comprehend why it was happening? Something so magical, enchanting, powerful, influential, and utterly amazing that your heart stops……………………………but only for a moment…………

If you wake up tomorrow morning, and someone presents you with a choice, would you listen? What if someone presented to you a crystal ball? The very idea of it is a joke. But what if it isn’t a joke on this morning? They say, “You may look into the crystal ball for a glimpse of your future in 20 years.” Would you look? If you like what you see, and you believe in fate, you’ll most likely go on your way with a little skip in your step. What if you don’t like what you see…..but you don’t even know that you don’t like what you see because, interestingly enough, that’s not you yet. It’s you in 20 years. A completely different reality, life, and moment. If your future puts you in a precarious and unfathomable situation, would you start to change who you are and the actions that people judge you by? Or would you just go on your way? Would you look?

If you wake up tomorrow morning, and you find an Aladdin-lookin’ genie lamp waiting for you, you’re going to rub it right? Of course you are, because it’s there, it’s cool looking, and there’s no way that a genie would come out of it…..right? What if one did? Sure, you would be scared half to death and maybe call the police, but you would probably catch your breath eventually. He (or She) says what you’ve always dreamed of hearing, “I’m your genie, and I am here to grant you 3 wishes.” What would your 3 wishes be? Would it be to cure the incurable? Superpowers? Infinite amount of money? How about good health for your family for generations? No more unnecessary violence on Earth? Success to your friends and family in all of their future endeavors? What would your 3 wishes be?

Restart. Refresh. Redo. If you wake up tomorrow morning and you’re presented with a “redo” button, would you press it? When I say redo, I mean redo a day, a moment, a time, a minute. Was there ever a period in your short life thus far that you wish you could just repeat knowing that you could change the outcome to exactly how you perceived it should have turned out to be? I certainly do. But, before you press that button, think about the ramifications of the action you’re about to partake in. If you go back and change what has made you who are today, will you be wiser? Or just more naïve? Maybe you would be better off or maybe not. Would you press the button?

You love, we love, and the world loves. There are people we would go to the ends of the Earth for and back 5 times over without hesitation. If you wake up tomorrow morning, and you are presented with an ultimatum that is so inexplicable, what would you do? In this case, you wake up to a world that is in ruins after an apocalyptic event. Everyone has vanished, but you somehow have the power to bring back to life one person that you can spend the rest of your life with. Who would it be? Can your mind comprehend the incomprehensible? Your mother, father, brother, sister, daughter, son……….. girlfriend, boyfriend, wife or husband? Who would you choose?

We all imagine the unimaginable. We have stints of daydreaming when we’re out with friends, in class, or just sitting down. We’re flying, we’re with the ones we love, we’re in love, we’re rich with emotion that no amount of money can provide. We are in another place. A place that is far, far, far away from this reality that we call Life and this home that we call Earth. Imagine the unimaginable

Feeling Removed

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how removed I’ve been feeling from the university as a whole. This is my third year here, and I’m beginning to get the feeling it’s about to start being time for me to begin to remove myself from the university so that I’m not feeling too attached when I leave. I’ve had a lot of good moments here and I’m sure there are still a lot left for me to experience, but I also have to be realistic and remind myself that this isn’t going to last forever. The college experience is one that people say is the best time of your life blah blah and that you will never want to leave. I’ve definitely had those emotions fill me up during my time here, but I was afraid that I really would never want to leave and move on. Now, I can rest assure that I will be able to graduate next year without having any regrets, or doubts.

I remember coming here in the Fall of 2007 and never wanting to leave during my freshmen or sophomore years. After having a good, fun, wrap-up of the summer in my hometown of Chapel Hill, NC, I couldn’t think of anyone who was more excited to finally leave their parent’s house than I was. There was not a doubt in my mind that I was ready to move on to living on my own, with thousands of my peers within feet of me constantly. I’ve always had a distant type of relationship with my family. Me being a first generation American, a lot of things that appear as normal to me, will never appear normal to my parents. Of course I love them to death, but I honestly felt like my time with them was nearing an end. This same feeling is beginning to return to me now as a junior at UNCW. I’m not saying UNCW is like my parents, but this university has already taught me so much about life and I will be taking lessons from this place far into my future.

Graduation is coming up for a lot of my close friends, and it’s going to be interesting to see what life is going to be like next year. I’ve created a lot of genuine friendships with a lot of upperclassmen that are graduating next year, and I’ve never actually thought about what life would be like without them. Of course, as the months draw closer to May, the thought returns to my mind almost daily. I’ve grown to love a lot of these people, and I really hope that these relationships aren’t forgotten. We joke about weddings and what life will be like in the future, and it will be quite the story to see how we all turn out. Every once in a while, I have to stop and remind myself where we are, and what we’re doing, because there’s no way that something like this can last forever. I realize that, but sometimes it’s nice to remind myself just how good of a feeling this moment with them feels and how badly I want to catch that feeling and open it up with them years from now.

It’s funny, there are moments that we have in life that we never ever want to end, yet we somehow have ended up saying that phrase multiple times by now. I feel like the best times of our lives are ahead of us. Yes, college is a wonderful, traumatizing, exciting, nerve racking, tumultuous, painful, joyous, heart wrenching experience that teaches us so much about life. We’re exposed to all types of demographics and backgrounds that it’s almost impossible to not learn something new every day. I’m feeling removed from the university, but there’s no way that I’m going to forget who’ve I’ve met, the experiences I’ve had, the vast amounts of intangible skills that I’ve acquired and the moments that I’ve shared with the people around me.

“Don’t Pack Your Things Up Just Yet!”

So, how much has the classroom changed since we’ve all been in school? What are we now? Juniors and Seniors roughly? So we’ve been in the schoolgame for a hot minute. And when I say hot minute, I mean coming up on the better half of two decades. We’ve all been witnesses to all kinds of classroom behaviors, experiences, and episodes. Some of them funnier and more enjoyable than others, and some days we just wish we were still in our ridiculously warm and cozy beds and far away from the classroom as possible. But through all of the school daze, there are some specific instances that I just have to tell you about that I’ve noticed. So let’s go to school.

The hand raise. You gotta wonder the first time we learned to raise our hands to ask a question. I sure as hell don’t remember how that all went down, but I do know that it has evolved like crazy since our elementary years. Remember those days when we would raise our hands out of pure eagerness and excitement? And I’m not talking about those hand raises that are a show of hands how many people do this, or have done that, or have this or that. I’m talking about when a teacher would ask an educational question and whoever DIDN’T raise their hand was just being a snickerpuss or sour and was having a bad day. Even if we didn’t know the answer we would still guess because we wanted to impress our friends, teachers, girls and boys we had crushes on, and even ourselves. But then something happened. The Hand Raise evolved into the Few Finger raise, then the One Finger Raise. What came along with this evolution? Rather, what was lost? The enthusiasm, excitement, and eagerness. Now, we just don’t care. When a teacher asks a question, more than likely, no one’s going to answer. For some reason, the older the student, less and less enthusiasm is shown. Maybe it’s because we’ve realized that we’re almost done with this school stuff and we just don’t care anymore. Or maybe some of us are just too cool for school. But how fun would it be if we all got back that enthusiasm for a day, or week? I think I’ll start raising my hand again.

Okay okay, someone PLEASE help me out with this one. You’re in class, and the teacher is giving their classic lecture and so forth. The teacher might ask a question that elicits a response or a student may have a comment about a specific something so naturally the student signals for the teacher to stop talking so they can have the floor, by hand raise, finger raise, whatever. The teacher calls on the student, and as soon as the student starts talking, everyone and their mom looks at them like they’re the President of the United States. If the student talking is in the back row, everyone in the front row shifts their heads all at the same time like robots and intently stares at the speaker as if they’re waiting for them to…….explode, or something. I don’t know what’s more weird: watching everyone turn their heads at the same time like androids to listen to the speaker (because for some reason we have to look AT them to listen to them) or eating a candlewax, sardine, and toe jam sandwich. Yeah. It’s that weird. So, when someone’s talking in class, look at them for a minute if you must, but go back to picking your nose, or daydreaming about popsicles. It’s just weird.

Oh Sleep. How wonderful is this phenomenon that our body does every day? Sleep feelssooo good. Especially when you’re so tired that your eyelids feel like golf balls, and you just can’t keep them open anymore. Or how about on those cold cold winter school days and you have that deadly 8 a.m., but wake up to a winter wonderland, so you joyfully put your body back in your bed and cozy up under your warm covers knowing that classes and activity for the day has been canceled. But, you know what sucks? When you’re in CLASS and all of these emotions overcome you. It’s such a bad feeling. Because you know you’re falling asleep, that chick sitting next to you knows you’re struggling to stay awake, and your teacher definitely knows your nodding that head of yours up and down like a pendulum desperately trying to stay awake. I hate it because you feel so helpless. You keep trying and trying to keep your eyes open, but it’s no use. If anything, the teacher lecturing is what’s helping you sleep easier. It goes: bedtime stories to children and lectures to students. I have yet to figure out a remedy to cure this unfortunate situation, but if anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears.

Last thing real quick. A little something that I know irritates some teachers, and would probably irk me if I was one. Minutes left in class, and what do we students do? Ruffle schuffle zipzip ruffle scuffle schuffel. We pack up our things like we’re going on vacation to Djibouti. What is with that?! The few seconds it takes you to pack up your things while the teacher is talking will not be missed if you packed up after they dismiss class. I know I know….sometimes teachers lose track of time and need the ruffling sounds of students packing up to remind them when it’s time to go. But for the teachers that say, “don’t pack up before class is over” I usually listen to them. They probably know what time it is, and they don’t need the loud, interrupting noises of our things to bother them. Let’s listen to ‘em everyone once in a while.

The classroom is an interesting place. So much goes down in those 4 walls of learning that it’ll actually all be over with before we know it. Of all the different rooms, students, teachers, and things learned, I can say that I will definitely miss school when it’s all said and done with, but if I ever teach anything anywhere, nobody will be packing anything up before I say so.

Forget Wag! Let’s Hit Up the Nest!....or Dub’s

Oh Wagoner Hall. It’s that heavenly place that we’re first introduced to the moment we come to this wonderful campus here at Wilmington. We gather there during orientation, experience the delicious, fulfilling foods that we are supposed to believe will be provided throughout the semesters (false), and eventually leave with happy faces and stomachs. Then we come back in the Fall for the new semester and it all goes south. Wag might become gross, repetitive, or just not as good as the first time we had it. Then we venture over to Hawk’s Nest and see what they have to offer, or maybe take a look at that new place in the Warwick Center called Dub’s Cafe. I have my quarrels and qualms when I think of these different dining options on our campus that I’ve been experiencing for some time now. But I’ve come to appreciate certain aspects of them all that I hope you’ve noticed as well.

Okay, okay. I’ve always thought that Wag was a pretty chill place to eat. I love the sense of community that it brings and the variety of foods that it at least attempts to present to us students day in and day out. At some point, it’s going to get repetitive. You can only have so much variety. But one thing that I just can’t understand is why they keep doing the Chinese Day at Wag. I’m sorry, but that is just a failed attempt at Chinese food. Already Chinese food is ridiculously misconstrued in America from what it actually is in China, but when Wag tries, it’s just a turnoff. I’m no food critic or anything but that sh!@ is nasty.

Now, if you’re really craving yourself some Chick-fil-A or some sushi, then you can make your way over to The Hawk’s Nest. Over here, you know what you’re going to get. There are no surprises or changes to anybody’s menu throughout the entire year……ever. Now, this can be a turnoff, or a turn on, whichever way you want to look at it. I look at it as a turnoff. All of the same foods, all the time, everyday, 5 days a week, yaddayadda. I need some variety in my foods. I can’t have the same foods all the time. Hawk’s Nest is alright, but only when you need it.

Now onto the mecca of all the dining locations. Dub’s Café. If you haven’t been here yet, you gotta hit this place UP. It’s new to this year and it’s located in the Warwick Center. Now, Dub’s Café is unique because of what it has to offer. First off, they have the usuals like the salad bar, and the drink station, and snacks. But the staple of it all is the pasta bar. Fresh pasta made everyday right in front of you. Variety is the key word here. Different pastas. Everyday. They even throw in certain days when they work with rice or orzo type pasta. Not only does Dub’s offer a pasta bar, but they have a hot bar section where different types of meals are served. I like to view it as a type of “mini-wag” because it offers hot meals like Wag does, but it pays much more attention to detail and quality, rather than quantity.

Of all of these different places to eat, I can easily say that Dub’s is my most frequent client. Wag will always remain my first true love, but Dub’s has recently been creating its own special place in my heart. Hawk’s Nest will never be able to compete simply because it just doesn’t offer variety. No surprises there. So, yeah, let’s hit up Dub’s today.

Stop Signs, Cats, and the Things that Irk Me

Pet Peeves. Everyone has them and some of them can be stranger than others. Some people don't even understand why something may annoy the hell outta them, they just know. It makes them feel uncomfortable, uneasy, irritated. Pet peeves irk people and they can come in all forms, shapes, sizes, directions, colors, etcetera etcetera. Irrational thoughts come to mind: "I'm gonna kill so and so if he/she does that one more time" or "It really grills my cheese when such and such happens." I feel like at this point in my life, I'm beginning to get a good grasp of the things that irk me. It's always nice too when you can find a quality companion who shares the same undesirable mishaps that are impossible to control in this world we live in. Luckily for me, my roommate and I can always have a good laugh at the things that kill us, figuratively speaking of course.

A turn signal. It can also be referred to as a blinker, a ticker, a yellow thing that blinks, and a clicker. It is one of the most intrinsically integrated parts of an automobile. You will not find a vehicle without one, unless a deer or some other type of animal was out to get it. So please, tell me why it is SO hard for some people to move their fingers 2 inches from the steering wheel to turn on their blinkers when they want to for instance, merge into another lane, or turn onto another street. It's one of my biggest pet peeves when people are so lazy as to not even move their fingers just to turn on a signal to let other people know what move you're about to make. It’s courtesy letting people know what move we're about to make. Accidents can be avoided.

WHAT did driver's ed. teach us about stop signs? When we see one of those octagonal shaped red targets, we're supposed to come up to it, complete a full stop (WITH the infamous "rockback" included), and then go on our way. If you and another car perpendicular to you come up to a stop sign at the same time, then whichever car to your right has the right-of-way first. It's a big pet peeve of mine when people don't follow these rules or at least understand them. Those who don't understand or follow these simple rules of the dreaded stop sign find themselves with shiny blue lights flashing in their rear view mirror if they roll through a stop sign. They get all frustrated and angry at whom? The police? Ha, yeah right. No, you should be mad at yourself for not completing a full stop. They're only doing their job. Make their lives easier by doing yours too.

Crosswalks around the nation are such a simple concept, but they can cause all kinds of unwanted trouble and evil driver thoughts emanating towards a fellow cross-walker. We've all been there. Kinda rainy day, long day of class/work. Everyone's rushing home. You approach a cross-walk and you're the only one that cars are impatiently and abrasively stopping for so you can quickly cross the road. But what do you do? You slowly and casually trot along that crosswalk as if the world is stopping for you. COME ON. At least do the half trot, kind-of-caring-jog with a wave of your hand to say thanks to the driver that stopped for you. Even if that saves the driver a millisecond more of time, it is still time. You didn't want to get in their way, and they didn't want to stop for you. But there's only one way to get to the other side, right?

For my last pet peeve (and this isn't the last, I just thought I'd wrap it up for this blog entry) the pun certainly is not intended. Cats have moved to the TOP of my list of pet peeves. You know why? Let me paint a picture for you. It was a cold winter afternoon, and my friend and I drove to eat at South College Deli. We're leaving and we get in my car to drive home. I start the engine. It ANGRILY shuts off as if someone had just shoved a Hogwarts flavored popsicle down your throat without telling you. My friend and I start to hear loud, obnoxious "meows" that far too closely resemble the "ow" sounds that a young child could perform. What do we see lodged up in my engine? A CAT! A live, breathing, all of sudden ridiculously annoying feline. I wait 2 hours for this furball to be removed from my vehicle. The cat's tail and leg got lodged up in my serpentine belt (for those who don't know it’s a single, continuous belt that drives such devices as your A/C, power steering, etc. and it's located in your engine) and it had to be cut to let this thing live. This is just a prime example of why dogs are still a man's best friend, and cats just need to shoo away. Apparently cats like to crawl into people’s engines to stay warm in the sharp wintry winds. Somebody needs to send a memo to all cats that cars are dangerous.

Pet Peeves make no sense. They grind people’s gears and we shouldn’t be bothered by stupid things, but we are. As long as you approach these frustrations with some kind of humor and understanding, you will find yourself laughing at your peeves and even your own mistakes that you make. Maybe you too will find someone who shares the same dislikes as you. All I know is that if my roommate and I had our own radio morning talk show, we would make bank.