Lent.

I've decided what I'm giving up for Lent. (I know I'm late. Give me a break, the church of Christ isn't really used to this.)

Stress.

I'm going to give up being stressed out for lent. It doesn't help anything. It just makes you miserable. You do as much as you can in the time that you can and other than that..the world will go on. Now, I've thought about it a lot and I've decided that it's a two-part deal. First, I've made a list of all the things that regularly stress me out. I will not be quitting any of these or working any less hard. I'm simply not going to care if my best happens to not be good enough.

Grades
Work
The Crimson White/Dateline Alabama-I will continue to work as hard as I can. If that's not what you wanted. I don't care.
Dating (I'm a girl. We stress over that stuff.)
Facebook-not really a stressor, just not something that's proactive.
Answering emails/facebook/text messages right away-I thought this was a matter of being polite or not but I've decided that you'll just have to wait.
Politics- Obama is in. There's nothing we can do about it now. I will not be participating in SGA elections. I think it is silly and utterly out of control. I do not care that you have your own web site. Get a life. I don't mean that to be harsh but really, find something better to do than sidewalk chalk your name all over campus. Go make friends. Stop putting your face all over campus. In two weeks, no one will care. No one will know what you do. Really guys, it's getting a little ridiculous.
News- no more news. No more CNN, no more USA Today.

Here's the second part. I'm going to rediscover the simple things in life that keep it from being mundane. We get so weighed down with tasks and homework and this and that and we forget about those little things in life that just make it that much better.

Letters from old friends and my grandmother
Sending out care packages to Auburn and Huntsville
Laughing
Taking walks and more importantly, taking time to just wander around. God made us this beautiful world and I really want to enjoy it more. Homework can wait.
Reading. I'm going to wake up early to read every morning.
Daisy
Spring is coming! Warmer weather. prettier clothes.
Smoothies. I've never really liked them until recently. The caramel one from Smoothie King is totally worth the $6.
Shoes you can play in.
Scrapbooks. I don't like to make them but I have a ton that I love to look through.
Staying up late to talk to friends. Not online. Not on Facebook/gchat/text message. I mean getting up and going to see them and talking. No worries about being tired the next day.
Panamanian Coffee- so much better than Starbucks.

I'm sure you each have your own list and the more I think about it I'm sure I'll add more to this list. Until then, I'm just going to have to suck it up and enjoy the next 40 (Is that how long lent is?) days.

Grace and Peace,
jg