In high school I was a total and complete stress case - kind of like Nick is now. I stayed up till 2am finishing 8 and 10-hour homework marathons almost daily, I had several minor emotional breakdowns, I drank 2L of Diet Coke a day, ate candy bars for lunch and (go figure) had IBS. I was involved in everything - and I was leadership in everything. I did NOT have time for a job. When I got my first B+ (in physics as a sophomore, which I was taking concurrently with honors chem because I had skipped earth science and taken bio freshman year) I thought my life was over. When we had to write a thesis paper over 12 pages junior year, mine was 18. I'd scream at myself when I was practicing flute and repeatedly screwing up, and my room - all 500 square feet of it - was always immaculate.
And then I changed from a Type A personality to a Type B.
I'm mellow, I'm (hopefully not always) messy, I don't really mind being a receptionist, and even under pretty intense circumstances my stress level remains low. I don't know if this could be a result of two years of antidepressants, New Age reading, or a very conscious decision to change my own behavior. Whatever the case though, I like it.
Posted by at July 15, 2004 02:26 PM | TrackBack