Enjoy the Little Things

I watched Neil Pasricha’s* TED talk about the 3 As of awesome. It really made me appreciate the little things in life, like the cold side of a pillow or getting your glass refilled without asking. Neil shared some very personal stories that were from the good, the bad, and the plain ugly times in his life, and as he unveiled his soul to the world, I felt more comfortable with the talk. The biggest idea he presented was positivity. Focus on the encouraging things in life and you will get through the hard ones. Why don’t people do this? Why don’t they appreciate the good things, however small? I see people at school moaning on and on about homework, sleep, finals, whatever, and I think can’t you just be happy with what you have? Now I know I’m guilty of this too some days, and some days you just need to vent and get it off your chest, but when you hear about someone’s awful night over and over, it makes you depressed too. Positivity is like a yawn, its contagious. Once one person experiences it, everyone else wants it to. The same goes for negativity too, except for its more unconscious. How do we get out of this rut? Well we need to stop obsessing over the negative. Why do we dwell on negative things? I guess moping around about the insane amount of reading you have to do and getting pitied for it is more rewarding then moving on and being happy about something else. That being said, the way you face life and your attitude about it was the first A of awesome. We’ve all had those days when you start your day feeling crappy and then your day is crappy too. Waking up on the wrong side of the bed is not something we can change, but if we face the day with a smile, people will be happy around you too. A smile can change anything so quickly that its better to feel excellent about stuff then it is to frown about it. The next A was awareness. You need to be alert to all of the small actions that could change your life. As Neil puts it, you need to get back to your 3 year old mentality. Some people have a hard time with that, though, because they are so used to being serious that they can’t let go. What brings this seriousness in? I think its life. When you are 3 you don’t care about gas prices, the bills, or terrorists. All you want is that purple crayon so you can finish drawing your butterfly. As you get older, you realize that there is more to life than doodling and popsicles. You now have things to worry about, stresses that make you so serious that you’re unable to be truly happy. Sure, you can fake it for a while, but when will it become too much? You need to be able to see the word for the first time, to relive your childhood and feel new again. The last A is authenticity, and to me, the most important one. You need to be real with yourself and others. There’s no need to put on a façade because you don’t like something about your life. Why aren’t people comfortable with they way they are? I know I have all of the self-confidence in the world, and I see people that hate their thighs, hair, or legs, and I wonder why they can’t just accept it and move on with their lives? They spend so much time worrying about material things that there isn’t enough time to be happy an enjoy life. We are only here on Earth for 100 years, so why not live everyday to its fullest? Everyone gets bumps in their life, because life isn’t perfect, but you can make the best with what you have and get past it instead of wallowing in negativity. Life is amazing and there are so many things to be happy about, so leave the negative behind and start everyday with a smile.

*Check out Neil’s amazing website here, and let the little things make you happy :)

Pirates...and tutoring?

In Dave Eggers’ TED talk he talked about pirate supplies and education reform. You may be thinking, what an unlikely pair, but in an attempt to slip past zoning laws, Eggers and his team of writers came up with something amazing. Their idea was to offer one on one tutoring with students in areas that needed the most help. This tutoring was needed because the ratio of teachers to students was so drastically different that there wasn’t enough time to help each student individually, students didn’t have a motivator to get their homework done, and they were not achieving as well as they could have. The lack of teachers is interesting, though, because their salaries are decreasing, and more of them are being laid off. Shouldn’t there be more of a focus on teachers and educators then Wall Street businessmen? Teachers shape tomorrows leaders and will impact their students dramatically, but if their jobs are disappearing, who is going to teach our kids? They are the basis for our society and they make people they way they are, but with the economic crash and lack of jobs, we need more people like Eggers and the other writers that can help the next generation reach their full potential. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the building the tutors were using had to be used to sell something, so they opened up a pirate supply shop, with everything from planks to eye patches, they have your pirate needs covered. In the back of this store is the classroom, where students can draw from their surroundings as inspiration. Who wouldn’t want to write about pirates anyway? That is the next big difference from 826 Valencia and Arapahoe High. Here at school we are faced with the same white walls and odd linoleum floors everyday. Talk about boring. Eggers used design to capture the student’s imagination without meaning to. I know I would be more motivated to go to school if it was pirate themed! Who designed schools to be so boring and bland if I go to school to be excited about learning? Lets just say that plastic wood desks and a lack of natural light is not my cup of tea; I’d rather be fishing, and that’s saying something because I would imagine myself being really bad at it. Schools all across the country need a makeover so they can have their students achieve their bests. Motivation is a big topic in class. It seems like with every TED talk we hear, someone, somewhere, is lacking a drive. These students in California required a push in the right direction, and Eggers brought them that. They didn’t need to go to tutoring, so why did they? It was fun! That’s the answer, plain and simple. Eggers also started publishing his students’ work, which changed their writing considerably. Kids are motivated by an importance and a purpose in writing. I feel this way in class when I write an essay. What’s the point in this? While Eggers’ students have their work printed out and permanent. They way the classroom worked was also a big motivator. The students guided the learning, not the teachers, which put things into students’ perspective. They like what they were doing, so they did it. If this is the case, shouldn’t students design schools if we are going to spend a lot of time in them? 12 years of our lives are spent in school, so why shouldn’t we enjoy it? Dave Eggers’ TED called for a reform in education, and I agree with him completely.