Forget the stress, bring on the good feeling

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By Derek Miles

This time of year is always a pretty stressful one, especially for college students. Of course, we are faced with final exams and all the agony, worry and anxiety that naturally come with them. Then there are the holidays, which bring not only joy and cheer, but also hassle and strain.

To me, it seems like there might be a little too much of all this stress.

Whenever I feel the heavy weight, which this time of year tends to bring, on my shoulders, I simply stop and dwell on the philosophy of ‘80s icon Ferris Bueller.

Ferris was a dude who didn’t take life, and all of its troubles, too seriously. No, he took life in and savored it in a way that is sadly absent this time of year, which is pretty ironic considering this is when we should indeed slow down and reflect on everything good that we are fortunate enough to enjoy.

Before we freak out about upcoming exams, we should remember the friends who are there for us, but if they are not, regardless of illness or any other excuses, tell them, as Ferris would say, “if they are not there in fifteen minutes that they can find a new best friend.”

When studying has you down and out, and you are just not getting it, just think that it is good. Remember what Ferris would say … “Better yet, incredible! That you are giving one of the worst performances of your career, but you never doubted it for a second.”

Don’t get caught being one of those guys, or girls, “whose friends would all bet 20 bucks that you are sitting in your car debating whether or not to go out. And when you are out and about enjoying the splendor of this time of year just think: if you had played by the rules, you would probably be in gym right now.”

Yes, the philosophies and principles of the legend known as Ferris Bueller run pretty deep, and there are plenty of them to be had. But the bottom line is life is something that should be enjoyed, not fretted over.

After all, if you do too much fretting, you’ll be impaired in your studies and in life, and when the time comes to get up and do something you’ll think “Oh, I’m so sorry for myself. I don’t think can even make it to the door right now. I’m afraid that in this weakened condition I’ve subjected myself to, I could take a nasty spill down the stairs, thus holding myself back even more.”

I’m not advocating that you skip class to frolic about, or that you neglect to study long and hard for your exams. I’m not even saying that you should get so into living life that you should throw on a pair of sunglasses and jump in the middle of an on-going parade to lead it in the signing of an old jukebox classic.

That’s not where I’m going with this. What I want to say is this time of year has the tendency to get us strained and stressed when it should rather be enjoyed. After all, “life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Derek Miles is a geography and German sophomore.