Taking the 'Pro' out of procrastination

   Let's face it, we all put the 'pro' in 'procrastination' way more often than we should.  It's a fact of life that as we grow up, we avoid doing things we should and end up rushing to do three hours of work in 30 minutes.  I find myself procrastinating daily, and regretting every time as I rush to write a 6 page paper or vacuum the entire house in half the time it should take me.  Even over this last weekend I had to write four posts on my Philosophy class's blog, and I didn't write any of them until 16 hours before they were due.  It's idiotic how much time I spend twiddling my thumbs, catching up on shows I don't even watch and reading the same Facebook posts 10 times.  Maybe we are hard wired for being lazy until the last possible minute, but I doubt that.  I think the truth is more along the lines of, unless we are in the perfect environment for our personal learning, we find it very hard to actually focus, buckle down and do work.  Unfortunately, unless we find that perfect environment, we will forever be stuck in a limbo of procrastination and then rushing at the last minute.

    Figuring out where that perfect environment is can be hard.  For some people, it's the library.  But that's easy to figure out, it's the first place you go when you know you really have to hit the books.  I hate the library, though; It's kind of like a homework hell.  Some people find an empty classroom, or just an empty room in general.  Others do really well just sitting at a desk or on their bed in their room.  Yet, none of these places work for me.  My place is a Starbucks, or a coffee house similar to Starbucks.

    I reached a point during my freshman year of college where I was absolutely miserable.  I felt stuck in my room, stuck with just five or so friends, and lonely when none of them were available.  I always felt like I was doing nothing.  I went through a period of time where I was depressed.  This feeling isn't like depression, it's not that hard hitting, and it's much easier to come out of, but it still sucks.  I felt depressed for about four weeks before I did something about it.  At this point I called up a counselor, and made an appointment.  But before I even went to the counselor, I changed one little thing in my life.
    On my college campus, we have a building called Crosby Student Center.  Basically, it's like the social center of campus.  Our mail room is based out of Crosby, there is a coffee shop, tons of tables, big comfy couches and it's always busy.  But it has a feeling about it that just makes it feel like home.  Crosby also puts on an event every Wednesday night where live music comes in and they perform for about an hour.  Fittingly, it's called Coffee House.  One of my friends and I decided to go one night, about 5 weeks before school got out.  And this one little choice changed my college life.  I figured out in that one visit that if I wanted to get homework done, study, or socialize with more people, Crosby was going to be my place.  After that I spent hours there every week, actually doing homework.  There was even one week where I had all of my homework done for the entire next week, and it was only Thursday night of the week before.  I had finally taken the 'pro' out of 'procrastination.'

    What is hard about college life, however, is that then you have to return to your home, and readjust how you get things done at home, too.  I took a six week online class this summer, and I spent the first five weeks barely making the deadlines.  I have one week left, and I am planning on spending a lot of time at a Starbucks.
    What makes it work for me is the white noise, the fact that I know I could have a conversation with almost anyone, but know that I also need to focus.  What also makes it great is I can get coffee whenever I need... and who doesn't love that?

<3 Katelynn René

The Friend Rule

Remember that song you probably used to sing all the time when you were little? (and probably even more often if you were a girl scout) It went like this:

And who doesn't love a little bit of kid artwork... all though it is a little strange.

I honestly think that song was on to something... maybe not so much that you have to label your friends as being either silver or gold... and let's face it, you probably thought about which friends went in which category at least once. But I think that realizing you can never have too many friends is the general message of the song.

Yet, I also realized growing up that each friend has their own role in your life, whether or not you realize it.  There are just some friends you wouldn't go to with certain problems, and others that you would, and you realize it.  This leads me to what I like to call the friend rule.

Now, the friend rule has a few key roles and characteristics that each person fills.  And you might find that each role is also filled by more than one person, and that's cool.  You probably have multiple friends with similar traits.  But I think it's necessary to have at least one person to fill each spot...

So here we go, The Friend Rule;

1) The Realist - This is the person who is honest. They don't sugar coat what they are saying to you, they tell you straight up what they're thinking.  If you need someone to be optimistic for you, this is not the person you want to go to.  But when you need to hear the truth, there is no one better to talk to.  And that is what makes them great, because you can sit down and talk to this person for hours, and feel like you have solved life problems, because nothing was sugar coated.  This relationship is often the most raw and open because lying will get you no where with this person.  Sometimes, the truth may hurt, but when was the last time you really got, and then stayed, mad at someone who told you the truth.

2) The "I've done that before" - This person, no matter what you have done, has probably "done that first."  Or at least that's the way it seems.  Your conversations with them probably sound a lot like this, "You are getting your wisdom teeth out? Well I got mine out last month and it was the worst thing ever, like thheeeee wooorrrst!" And while this may get annoying sometimes, this person probably just needs to feel more important than you.  It's hard to deal with sometimes, but in the end they are a good person, and they probably humble you.  There's a good chance this person also needs a great friend, someone who they bond with and can go to, and they might just see you as the person for the job.

3) The Cheerleader - Don't want to hear the truth yet? The cheerleader is the person to go to.  They are always optimistic, always telling you that "you'll do better next time," even if you actually can't sing a single note on key.  This may sometimes get annoying, but you know they will always have your back because they care for you and want to see you succeed and be happy.

4) The quiet one - It probably took a long time to become good friends with this person because they are soooo reserved.  But that probably means your friendship is really strong, because you have had to try to become friends and you have succeeded.   They might not always have a vocal opinion on your life, but they are willing to listen and let you talk through things.  They are probably also always up for whatever, whether or not they seem really excited about it.

5) The person of the opposite sex - Not the boyfriend, but the best friend.  You know what I mean, no attraction what-so-ever, (or at least not yet) but they are willing to be your best friend.  He gives you different kind of insight than all the girls.  But don't lead him on, and don't him lead you on.  Make sure if any lines start to be crossed, and you aren't comfortable with it, CLARIFY! If he can't respect that, then he's not actually as good of a friend as you think.

6) The "sibling" - You do everything together, talk about boys, college, your future plans, everything.  You aren't really related, but you are together often enough you mights as well be.  And no matter where life leads you in the future, you will always be friends, because sisters always keep in touch.  And no matter where you leave off, you always pick back up in the same place.

So there they are, the must have friends.  Trust me, you probably have them all, just look around and realize what role each friend fills.

<3 Katelynn René

From a small town

Sometimes, I find that I have to sit down and face reality, and recently I've been thinking a lot about home.  I lived in Colorado for 5 years, and when I moved to Washington I thought I would never claim  my little town as my home... As it turns out, I was wrong.  I've now lived here for 8 years, and since I've been at college for the last year, I've been calling O-town (as we like to call it here) my home.  But in all reality, I think I've considered it home since the time I was a freshmen in High School.

The reason I care about being from a small town, especially today, is because I just went to the best concert I've ever been to in my entire life; Kenny Chesney's No Shoes Nation Tour.  Now, Kenny Chesney is also from a small town... Somewhere in Tennessee... and he is very proud of that.  He sings the following songs about small towns;
1) Back where I come from
2) Where I grew up
3) In a small town
4) I'm a small town (notice the similar names...)
5) I go back

Trust me, there are more, but these are the really obvious ones... But this post is about more than just Kenny Chesney songs, and it's about more than being from a small town... I guess it's kind of about both...?

So lets start out with a short review of the concert; honestly, it was fantastic.  I missed out on the first opening act, Kacey Musgraves. But she came out for the song Come Over with Kenny Chesney, and she has a beautiful voice.  I also saw nothing but the tail end of the Eli Young Band, how was also great.

Eric Chruch was up next, and I'll be honest, he was a little strange, but hilarious and fun to watch.  I'm still a little confused as to why he took boots from audience members, signed them, and then gave them to other people... Like, now two people only have one shoe. but whatever... he also took two beers from audience members and drank them, meanwhile spilling them all over his shirt... Obviously, he didn't want other people's cooties. Over all, though, he was great too. There really wasn't a bad act on the tour.

My family was worried Kenny Chesney would be playing all songs from his new album, which is a total snoozer. (I could do homework to it, no problem) But he only played three; everything else were his most popular hits from the last 20 years! And it was awesome.  My family loved it, we knew every song and we sang along the whole time.

But some of the real entertainment came from the people in the audience around us. The woman in the couple in front of us was so drunk and horny it was disgusting.  And the girl across the aisle was flirting with every male that walked by because "she was going to find a boyfriend that way."  Uh--huh... I'm sure that will work really well for you...


And then there is my lovely small home town, and despite being in Western Washington, it's quite similar to the town Kenny Chesney is from.  There's cows, farms, hicks, football, girls... all the necessary requirements.

The only difference is I have no intentions of living here in the future... Not saying Kenny is going to be back there some day; but I will not be back, living here, ever again.   I'll drive through some day and be like; kids, I used to live there! but that's it.  In the meantime, I will forever love the friends I've made here, the time I spent here and I will always have pride in being a graduate from my High School.  But that's about it.

So thanks, Kenny, for the home town reminiscing... Sometimes that's just what you need to realize how grateful you are for your home town (and it's a little reminder for where you don't want to be in your future).

-Katelynn René