One Guiness and One Gigantic Burger Later

Written by Kyle about Korea, Republic of. Feelin' happy
Kyle_happy
..and I feel better.  Sure, the burger wasn't the best that I've ever had and the Guiness set me back $8, but it was worth it.  Ok, it wasn't only that.  If that were the solution to all my problems, I would probably be overweight and drunk, kind of like a Homer Simpson.  Here are a couple of things that turned it around for me.

1. Don't Be Bothered By Unimportant Things

And by unimportant things, I mean work.

Listen: I'm a person who has always taken work semi-seriously.  I want to be good at what I do.  When I was a waiter, I wanted to be a good waiter.  When I was serving popcorn at a movie theater, I wanted the popcorn to have the right amount of salt and butter.  When I code websites, I want them to be excellent.

Now, I'm an English teacher and I wanted to be good at that.  And who knows, maybe I am; I'm certainly not bad at it.  I am, however, very restricted about how I teach and what I teach.  I have little to no choice in what books or topics my kids learn or even how I teach them.  I used to get frustrated that I spend most of my time getting preschool kids to memorize sentences about going to the dry cleaner.  It used to annoy me when I have kids that still can't write their alphabet properly learning from books that are 2 grade levels above them. 

But now I just think "What can I do?".  I've said my opinion and it went over about as well as high heels on ice.  Am I possibly ruining the foundation of a child's English languange aquisition?  Probably.  But, if that's what they are paying me to do, then so be it.

2. Writing it Down

Writing everything down in a previous blog really worked for me.  After reading them, they all seemed pretty annoying, yet none were grave.  That's when I realized that there is nothing permanently wrong with my situation.  The perfect storm named Annoyance just blew through and now it's gone.  It might come back, but just like the weather, it's not permanent.

3. Internet Videos

Say what you want about the internet, but it cheered me up.  No, I didn't go to some weepy, emo chat group.  I watched ridiculously funny videos.  Who can feel sad after watching this:



And of course, I always love the view of the boys from Monty Python.  Sure, their comedy may be heretical and inappropriate, but when I get this tune stuck in my head, it's hard not to smile.



4. All the Small Things

I'm breathing, I have a job, I have a home, I have an awesome wife, I have a bright future, and I have to wear shades (because of the aformentioned bright future).  You know, all of the small things that we should be grateful for everyday.  After doing all the above and moving some of the sadness clutter taking up space in my brain, I had some room to reflect on these things.

Ok, I put this last on purpose.  Not because it's the least important, but because it is the last one that came to me.  I'd love it if this were the first thing that came to me, but I'm still far away from achieving enlightenment, so I'll have to deal with it at #4.


In short, life sucks sometimes, but overall for me, it's not that bad.  Or to take inspiration from Monty Python again:

If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.

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