Assignment #19- Liz Graves

I think the best piece of advice I've ever received was from my neighbor, Adam. Adam works in the construction business like my parents, and there's a lot of pressure in that industry to do everything fast and perfectly. As you can imagine, those adjectives are pretty much mutually exclusive. Try telling that to a client. Well Adam and my parents have had to do just that many times. Whenever my dad vents to Adam about how stressed he is about not being able to get something done as soon as he'd like, Adam asks my dad, "What are they gonna do? Eat ya?" My family and I laugh at that, but it's so true! If I really sit down and think about it, I stress about the most inconsequential things. Good Lord, that quiz really didn't go well. What is my teacher gonna do? Eat me? Kill me now, I fell flat on my face in the middle of track tryouts in 7th grade. What is the coach gonna do? Eat me? Oh my gosh it's 11:00 and I just took a three hour nap and I haven't done any homework and there is no way on God's green earth I can get all this done by tomorrow and oh God I'm going to fail my ACT because I haven't studied at all and I'm going to be homeless because I'm not taking my education seriously and I'm so stressed I think I'm just going to take another three hour nap... What is anyone gonna do? Eat me? Adam's point isn't that things can always be worse (which, yes, they can) but that you are alive and breathing, and not be able to get one or even 100 things done isn't going to change that. That doesn't mean Adam makes excuses for himself; he's one of the most hardworking men I know. But he puts things into perspective, and it helps him manage his stress enough to get what needs to be done, done. So whenever I'm super anxious about anything I try to remember Adam's advice. It's really helped me manage my stress over the years. It's also helped me remember I am not that bad quiz grade, or that embarrassing track moment, or that wasted three hours I could have been doing homework. It's what made me realize that nobody can hurt me beyond repair. That is the most liberating feeling in the world, and someday I'm going to have to remember to thank Adam for that.