Feeling Unprepared

How many times in my life have I felt unprepared?

Probably,

umm....


EVERY SINGLE DAY since I started school.

Well, fine, I don't remember exactly how it was in first or second grade - but it definitely feels like that. Especially recently. How annoying is that feeling of immense anxiety hijacking your body because you are in you unlucky streak of events? Those situations where you know you can't do anything in the world to get that last handful of vocabulary words crammed into the last empty space in your brain, to memorize those two formulas that are of vital importance but you don't know half the symbols it includes. Yes, I have been in a situation where I have felt unprepared. And, yes, I am still going to be in those situations; just thinking about them causes an uneasy feeling in my stomach.

I have been sick and missed school. Days, where all I did was sleep, wake up to eat, wake up because of guilt of not doing your school work, attempting to be productive, getting a headache and going back to sleep - and of coarse tons and tons of tissues and coughing in the mean time. And then, when you get back to school you have five hundred tests to make up for, late assignments due and missing homework. The overwhelming feeling that is latched onto feeling unprepared as a counter-reaction might actually be just as bad.

Or working on perfecting a several-paged-assignment late into the night, then that huge grin comes on your face when you slam your finger into that last full stop on your keyboard. Your drag your mouse and hover it over the 'save' button, you exhale from relief - but then..........your computer crashes!! And you lose ALL. YOUR. WORK. Yes, that I have been through as well.

And many other dreadful times like these, but it is something that comes with being a person that does something, whether it's going to school or work or anything.

I think the worst thing about this, though, is that waaaay too many teachers greet you with "I don't wanna hear it." Every excuse, in my opinion, should be listened to because the bugging feeling you get, when you KNOW that your excuse is valid and there was no way around it but you just keeping getting the 'shush' hand shoved in your face, is too irritating to ask of anyone.

Bill McKibben

Describe your mental environment.What is the landscape like? What pollutes it? How polluted is it? What do you think of this analogy? What might practicing "mental environmentalism" look like?


I like this analogy, it's an interesting way/interpretation/representation of the human mind. I think that everyone is born with a "pure" mind, however, even as the first few minutes pass - it is already polluted. I think that everyone's mind is polluted. Sometimes when I work too long, non-stop, I feel as though a giant tornado is jumbling all my thoughts - the ones that I just managed to put together are torn apart, the wrong pieces are put together, everything is going crisscross. But, I usually get into these situations when I have a lot of work to do and this tornado comes. This means that I still have some work left. When this happens, I put my pencil down and just try to organize my thoughts. However, sometimes this just takes too long and my thoughts get polluted with "okay, concentrate, focus....no....stop" and never actually get to the working part. I also think that when talking about a "polluted mental environment" we have to be careful not to mix this with things such as procrastination.

Practicing environmentalism, in my opinion - for clear thoughts, has several different looks. I think you need to have a clean physical outside environment. One needs to take a moment, relax and try to focus. One needs time. When one needs to think, one needs to get rid or disturbances and distractions. - however, I think it is impossible. The mere concept of "opinion" is great pollution to everyone's mind.

Even though I believe that everyone's mind is polluted, I don't really like this word. "Pollution" has a negative connotation to it. But, I think that 'pollution' in one's mind is a natural thing that cannot be changed. Shouldn't it be seen as a positive thing that we are so advanced that we have too many thoughts in our mind? Isn't it fascinating? And having this overflow ideas has caused the world to be as advanced as it is today, it has lead to great things. The mind and the knowledge, ideas and thoughts it contains is the ultimate power.

Pretend you are your parent. Blog about your child.

My daughter, who's already sixteen years old, has had a life not many other people her age have. She has experienced things not many people can say they have. My daughter likes doing many things. Sometimes she does too many things at the same time though. She has a hard time managing her time. She takes more time than she has to do her work. If she would learn how to do her work so that she has time left, she would be able to do so many more things. She enjoys doing many things and she tries to put effort into everything she does. She makes friends easily and never has any trouble with them, but in my opinion she should spend more time with them. My daughter does not yet know what she wants to do when she's older but has big dreams and goals (for her future) - but sometimes she can forget that she needs to work to attain those. She often has a smile on her face.