It's super easy to get caught up in the mood of a situation. I don't know about you guys, but I can tend to be melodramatic sometimes.
Don't worry, I'm not outspoken about it. I keep my occasional dreary mentality and thoughts inside.
When did we all get so jaded and cautious? Was it after our first missed assignment? Was it after our Internet connection died right as we needed to submit a paper online? Could it have been after someone made fun of us in elementary school?
No, I'm actually asking you. Because I definitely don't have an answer. I just know we all tend to be a little moody sometimes and get in our heads about things.
As the late Dr. Jack Shephard once said, "We have to go back."
So yeah, let's go back to the mentality we had as children. That mentality seems to be really carefree and unassuming - two traits I wish I could exemplify more.
Please don't read this column as a whiny-boo-hoo piece. Believe me, I'm not complaining about life, not even about my life in particular. I've just been noticing a trend lately in myself and some of my friends - we've had to be "grown-ups" or "adults," whatever those are.
Being an adult doesn't mean you have to be mad and sad all of the time. Yes, now we have bigger problems to deal with, but that doesn't mean we have to let them affect us negatively.
Recently, I was able to perform an improvisational comedy show, also known as "improv," for a group of middle schoolers. After our brief show, we ran a workshop for them.
All we did was a few warmups and played a few games with them, but it was enough to remind me of what it was like to learn something for the first time.
Trust me: Learning improv can be a scary and terrifying thing - if you let the mood affect you.
I started learning improv with Theatre Strike Force three years ago during my freshman year. I joined without even really knowing what improv was and certainly not what it can become. I've learned that improv is all about trust. You have to trust your capabilities as well as those of your partners.
The best moments in improv - and also in life - are when you clear your mind and just simply react to the world around you.
The kids didn't give a crap about what they looked like on stage, something I know my improv colleagues often do. They knew they were not going to be improv experts, but they didn't care. They just wanted to get out there and have a fun experience.
It's important to keep trying new things with your whole heart. Commit to the situation, and trust your instincts.
Wouldn't life be so much more enjoyable if we worried more about those things instead of how dumb we look?
I know we all have deep situations to deal with. I know we're all entitled to countless feelings and emotions.
As UF enters midterm exam season, where academic stresses can shove themselves into other facets of our lives, let's try to face the world with a smile instead of a frown.
We need to be like those pretty cool middle schoolers! Just try your hardest to do your best, and everything will fall into place. That sounds like a much better plan than worrying all the time about everything, right?
So thank you, Hoggetowne Middle School. You have a really cool outlook on life - teachers and students alike.
I'll try to bring more positivity into my routine, too. A balance of fun and focus sounds pretty ideal to me.
Sami Main is a journalism junior at UF. Her column appears on Tuesdays.
