#40- Studying

After two weeks of dull, arduous and at times painful studying for exams, I never thought I would be saying that I think studying is a pretty awesome thing.

No, being cooped up in my room for a couple of days straight hasn't made me loony, I honestly think studying is good in its own way.

When I read over my notes it's like reading a book again and again, I always find something new that I never noticed before. Be it a new fact, a new understanding or a new way to look at something, I always seem to find something amongst the piles and piles of text. In those moments I feel like I understand the world a tiny bit better, that the information I just obtained can actually be used and that I'm not as goofy as I look.

I always enjoy going over my notes and seeing the doodles I have drawn in the margins or the little notes I have left for myself in the points I have jotted down (such as "you didn't get this note because you were daydreaming, game over fool). It makes studying less of an errand or task and more of an adventure through my brain.

I also start to remember all the good times I have had in class over the semester while studying. When I read my notes it triggers memories of friendships started and nurtured, victories won and criticism digested. There's even a couple memories of some good laughs in there too.

So I am grateful for studying. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to go to school and be able to take exams and study for them. I am grateful that I am able to reinforce my knowledge of topics and issues, remember the good times I have had in class and and the good and bad I have experienced. Studying doesn't have to end with the end of exams. Whether you study math, science and english or yourself and your dreams and goals, it's always time well spent.  

#36- Wind

I was almost blown over by the wind several times as I walked to the mall to get some food today, but it was exactly what I needed.

I have been cooped up in my room for the better part of five days now studying for exams while the weather has been getting steadily warmer. My room has seemed a little like a prison and today I decided to break out, get some much needed air and clear my head.

When I left the house I was immediatley hit with a warm and blustery wind. This was great because I finally felt free from the dry and hard to read notes that seemed like they had been chaining me to my room. The wind made me feel alive and part of the real world instead of tumbling face first into textbooks.

I would like to think that the wind and I have a sort of love-hate relationship. While on runs throughout the years, the wind has been there beside me many times, either fighting against me, threatening to throw me off stride and blow my momentum or at my back pushing me forward, keeping me cool. But helping me or hindering me, the wind has always been something to keep me company during my runs which really helps me keep going.

So I am grateful for the wind. I am grateful for the sense of freedom and life it brings to me, for the warm or cool air is provides and for the comfort it gives me on runs, even if it is a fickle force. I am grateful that the wind brings change, brings rain or sun and creates energy for people. Even though I can't see the wind, it always makes its presence felt, in big and small ways.  

#33- iPhone Auto Correct

It's day three of spring study-mania, 2011 and I'm fading fast. Cabin fever has begun to set in and I'm going slightly loopy from reading thousands of highly academic words like "quasi supra state" and "concomitants". The reason I know how bad I am doing is that I am speaking to my girlfriend in strange voices, which I do on a regular basis, but instead of feeling witty and hilarious I reflect back on those moments and think, "Wow Marc, your being a little crazy." 

And that is why my discovery of a site showing hundreds of hilarious, texting screw-ups is a God sent. All the texts shown on the website are the result of the iphone's sometimes strange auto correct function that inserts crazy and inappropriate words into messages for the proper words.

Now this is at times unfortunate for the people that sent the crazy messages in the first place, but it makes me laugh very loudly. My sporatic outbursts of giggling may leave my roommates a little worried for my sanity, but for me these little joke messages created by auto correct are a way to smile on my five minute breaks, to release some tension and stress and feel happy when I hit the books again.

So I am grateful for auto correct on iphones. I am grateful for the people who had to sacrafice some dignity so that I could enjoy their screw-ups, for the people who put the web site together and for whom ever put a finicky auto correct on the iphone because you have all made me laugh, you have all put a little sunshine in my day when I am stuck indoors studying. And when it comes time for me to make a harmless, yet embarrassing and funny mistake I hope someone gets a kick out of it and that it leaves a smile on their face.