HTCI

As I was coming home from school one Monday afternoon, instead of going home and spending the next hour attempting to do my homework when, in actuality, I spend it eating everything I can find in my house as I usually do, I decided to go on a bit of an excursion. I dropped my backpack among the fallen leaves and went exploring around my neighborhood. Among the boring old suburban houses, I stumbled upon a small graveyard of long-deceased souls, a small strip of woods where I felt more at home than ever and a new route I had not yet seen before. It was just a simple walk, nothing truly special about it, but along the way I felt a sense of magic in me, an excitement that I rarely find within my typical day-to-day life.

As students, every week is already laid out for us, and we are supposed to simply go through the motions: slug through our Mondays, get a maximum of four to five hours of sleep for the rest of the days of the week as we try to get everything done in time, have slightly more exciting Fridays and Saturdays since we may have more time to do something somewhat fun, but we still stress about everything we have to do, spend our Sunday dreading the next week ahead and finishing all the homework we have left over, wake up early to go back to school the next Monday morning, and repeat.

However,  if every single Monday is just meant to be dreadful and boring, then that’s a seventh of your life that’s been nothing but dreadful and boring. If every single Sunday is meant to stress about the week ahead, then that’s another seventh of your life spent stressing. And if every single week is the same as we go through the motions, then what’s left?

The spontaneity and adventure in life often gets lost among our structured seven-day weeks. But the thing about Mondays is that they are only dreadful and boring if you make them out to be. Sundays are only stressful if you let that stress get to you. Go into every Monday, and every other day, excited and positive, rather than deciding it’s going to be horrible prior to even starting the day. Take a few minutes to go on an adventure every now and then, something spontaneous that you
wouldn’t typically do. Clear your head and enjoy what life has to offer, because it’s more than a repeating loop. 

As I stood among the dead, colorful leaves and the forgotten tombstones, I felt a sense of exhilaration wash over me, one that can only come from being lost. For a moment, I forgot about the typical stressors of life and just walked as the air gust over me, and I felt more myself than ever. And I realized: it is often when we are lost that we are able to find our true selves.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Raiha Zainab at [email protected].