My new theory about misery
1. I'm sick of it. wait, no, that's not new.
No, I have actually developed a new theory, I call it, if I can't have it at least someone else can.
I've been having a lot of crappy days lately. A looong time feeling tired crappy and miserable. I needed christmas holiday badly, and like everyone else, I didn't get one. And my energy for laughing and continuing on in the face of impossible odds (which is required to do anything in lawschool) is pretty much gone. So. New plan.
It goes like this: if I'm feeling miserable, I want something to happen that will make me feel better. But mostly, that's not going to happen. But! If I want something to happen to make me feel better, odds are other people want things to happen to make them feel better. And since 1. no man is an island and 2. emotions are contagious, if I do things to make other peoples day better, it will make my day better. Not to mention, if I wish something would happen, I ought to try to act out that wish for other people on grounds of basic logical consistency. So, today, while feeling miserable about spending my birthday writing a paper I already wrote, I stopped and bought pie for my clerkship class, on the theory that they also have been working hard on their papers and would like something nice to happen. And, hey, they did like it, and the general enthusiasm in the room made me feel better.
The trouble is, people up here are so contained! They're scared to do nice things for strangers and scared when strangers do nice things for them. I therefore need to develop of a list of non-scary nice things I can do. Suggestions? Cheaper is better.
No, I have actually developed a new theory, I call it, if I can't have it at least someone else can.
I've been having a lot of crappy days lately. A looong time feeling tired crappy and miserable. I needed christmas holiday badly, and like everyone else, I didn't get one. And my energy for laughing and continuing on in the face of impossible odds (which is required to do anything in lawschool) is pretty much gone. So. New plan.
It goes like this: if I'm feeling miserable, I want something to happen that will make me feel better. But mostly, that's not going to happen. But! If I want something to happen to make me feel better, odds are other people want things to happen to make them feel better. And since 1. no man is an island and 2. emotions are contagious, if I do things to make other peoples day better, it will make my day better. Not to mention, if I wish something would happen, I ought to try to act out that wish for other people on grounds of basic logical consistency. So, today, while feeling miserable about spending my birthday writing a paper I already wrote, I stopped and bought pie for my clerkship class, on the theory that they also have been working hard on their papers and would like something nice to happen. And, hey, they did like it, and the general enthusiasm in the room made me feel better.
The trouble is, people up here are so contained! They're scared to do nice things for strangers and scared when strangers do nice things for them. I therefore need to develop of a list of non-scary nice things I can do. Suggestions? Cheaper is better.