Learning to be grateful instead of regretful.
I find at times I can be a bit negative about my college situation. You know with being a commuter and all. Or just college in general.
I get mad that I have to drive in everyday. Not finding parking- literally THE WORST!!! Receiving a bunch of homework. Not getting enough sleeeeeepppfahheghrug …. The list goes on and on.
People keep telling me that I just need to be more positive. Take it day by day. Don’t worry so much and enjoy the little things in life. Easier said then done, am I right?
But with this constant push of positivity thrown in my face, I feel I should at least try to change my mindset.
This is when I started to think about gratitude. What could I say about my life that I am grateful for. Well a lot of things. The one I’m thinking about and the one I want to touch upon is my home.
I’m grateful that I have a place to drive to every night after school. A place that I can call my sanctuary. A safe place. A place I can go to hopefully leave those stressors of school behind, even though they tend to follow me.
What I’m trying to say is that I’m sort of happy I don’t live on campus because I can kind of distinguish the places of school/work and home/relaxation separately in my life. I feel when you’re a resident you can’t really get away from school. Yes there’s parties and no you don’t live right in your psychology classroom, but you walk 5 minutes and your dorm room is right there. It’s sort of a blessing and a curse, in my opinion.
Sure for me I have to drive 30 minutes to get home, but it allows me to decompress from my day and sort of get into this different mode where I’m like, “Yes I’m home now, I can relax and feel 100% me”. I think I just like being able to leave the space. It’s kind of like a 9 to 5 job… except I still need to do a bunch of work at home, “bosses” are emailing me left and right, and where’s my paycheck!?
I’m not saying a dorm can’t be your little oasis from school because it totally can be, and you should be grateful for that. A home is what you make of it. But for us commuters I’m trying to say, don’t regret not living on campus because you don’t have a 5 minute walk to your bedroom or that you’re missing out on all the action. Instead I encourage you to be grateful for the things you do have. Like your OWN bedroom with a bed that hasn’t been used by 20 other people over the last who knows how long. It’s probably been the same since the college was founded.
I know it can be hard to not think negatively or think about the things you don’t have; I know, I’m still learning and it’s not going to change overnight either. But what I’m asking of you is to maybe think of one thing that you are grateful each day. It could be not getting homework in a class or finding a parking space. HALLELUJAH!! Whatever it is, hopefully it will put you in a better mindset and be happy of who you are and what you have.
Today I am happy that I have a place I can call home. My home lol 🙂 And that it’s far enough away from campus where I can feel like I can decompress and compartmentalize that this is home and that’s school. I don’t know about you, but I think for once I was actually being positive!
Committing to the Commute 