Trying Something New, Again

Never really being one to leave well enough alone, and apparently not having yet met my internal quota of Things To Obsess Over by demanding of myself that I visit each and every one of the almost-300 blogs that participate in the Thursday Thirteen meme, I’ve been shopping around for some new blog activities in which I can participate.

So this week I participated in the Friday’s Feast meme, which was a lot of fun, and tomorrow I’m planning on participating in Blog Fodder. But not only do these new memes offer me the opportunity for some high-quality obsessing over these brand-new participant lists, this Monday will only be the third week that Blog Fodder has been around. And they leave up all the previous topics. And there really aren’t strict rules about how you participate. Which means that I can go back to the very beginning and answer all the questions starting from Week One. Because having a perfectly complete and uninterrupted set of Blog Fodder posts of course matters a great deal to…um,…absolutely no one. But it sure does make my inner OCD girl happy. So here we go.

Blog Fodder #1: What Are Some Of Your Memorable Experiences At School?

I think the thing I remember most about being a freshman in college is just how Every Single Little Thing completely blew my mind. I remember standing on the quad one day looking at the bank that was on campus, and feeling my entire world view shatter around me as I realized, “Wow-I don’t have to use the bank my parents do just because they use it. I can choose my own bank.” It seriously had never occurred to me before that I could make my own decisions about these kinds of things.

I didn’t drink in college, and I didn’t need to because honestly, just contemplating the question of which detergent I was going to use to do my laundry would spiral me off into a full-blown existential crisis. “Whoa…Tide…trippy!”

Blog Fodder #2: Tell Us About Somebody Who Has Changed Your Life, Even If Only A Little.

Recently this would have to be my coach. I’ve worked with life coaches for about the past 4 1/2 years, and have been with my current coach for about the last 2 years. She is AWESOME. She’s very compassionate during those times when I’m freaking out, always reminding me of all the things I’ve come through and all the great work I’ve done.

She also gives me fabulous counsel, such as during the times when I fall into a depression:

“Gag yourself with duct tape if you have to, but DO NOT TALK TO OTHER PEOPLE. Because right now you have the capacity to totally destroy all your relationships by uttering a single word,” for example is something that she’s told me on more than one occasion.

She’s also very good at reminding me of things about myself which I’ve forgotten, like the fact that I always pass through about a 2-week period of insomnia when the school year ends and I’m done tutoring, or the fact that I’m very sensitive to the change of seasons:

“Yes, you’re feeling down now, as you always do at the beginning of winter. But in a few months it will be the springtime, and you will once again feel like ‘taking all your clothes off and running down the street naked’, just like you did last spring.”

(Oh, you wrote that down did you? Man, I’m really gonna have to start paying A Lot More Attention to the stuff I say to people.)