Pleasure in the Small Things

It's amazing how much stress can be relieved just by rescheduling an exam. This past week I was supposed to have 2 exams on Friday, and not in easy classes by any means: Organic Chemistry and Human Physiology. On top of that my last cross country meet, a JV-only meet at St. John's College, was on Friday afternoon and the team was leaving at 11 AM. This meant that I would have to take both of my exams back-to-back starting at 7:30 and ending about 10:45, then quickly get down to the vans to leave for the meet. Thankfully, I didn't have to do that.

I arranged to have one of my exams on Monday, which left me a lot more composed and confident in how I could manage to do decently well on both tests. It also gave me a weekend in which I was able to have some fun and revisit some of my favorite things to do:

On the 4 hour drive to St. John's on Friday I cracked open the book Nineteen Minutes (Jodi Picoult) that wasn't assigned for a class! Someone had loaned it to me before Fall Break, and Friday was the first time I actually felt ok sitting down and getting started on it. I love to read. It was so nice being able to lose myself in a book and not be bogged down by real-life responsibilities- or the traffic jam we were stuck in.

On Saturday afternoon I gathered up some friends and shot hoops for a while. Basketball was my first love and getting a ball in my hands always brings on feelings of excitement and comfort. Since it had been a few months since I'd even touched a basketball, I can't say that I was shooting anything but bricks, but it didn't matter, it was fun. After shooting around, I managed to do some cartwheels, round-offs, handstands, and back walk-overs without pulling or straining anything. My muscles had to tap into memories of when I used to do gymnastics in 2nd grade! That running, flipping, and jumping brought a nice adrenaline rush and made me feel like a little girl again, practicing my gymnastics moves all over the house. How I would love to have that care-free feeling more often!

Sometimes doing those small things, like reading a book or doing a cartwheel, can bring just as much pleasure as running with my teammates or doing well on an exam. Small pleasures make life more enjoyable and help to remind me that life is so much more than how I do on a test.