You Don’t Feel Stressed
The next time an ‘adult’ (a concept which, by itself, is already questionable. I mean, I’m technically an adult in many countries in the world, and in Canada, but I’m still waiting for that magical part where I feel any different) tells me that students don’t understand stress, I’m going to…to…probably not say anything outrageous because I’m busy trying to maintain civility.
What do you mean students don’t feel stressed?
It’s practically the whole reason why I haven’t posted in three months. More than three months and going on four but that’s besides the point.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this and discussing about it with friends, so let me give you a metaphor:
Life’s a lot like a swimming pool. If you’re lucky and you’re well adjusted, your pool is a nice gradient. You start in the shallow end and carefully ease yourself into the deep end. Sure, the waves get big and overwhelming sometimes, but you’ve got an awesome life jacket that your parents bought and are maintaining for you. You reach the deep end – adulthood – swimmingly! Ha, I am the pun master.
But that probably only applies to, forgive the old tirade, the top percentile of people. The 1%.
Most of us just start in the splash pool and all-of-a-sudden, the Lifeguard (like, Life itself, you know? PUNS) picks you up, coddles you a little all through Elementary and maybe Jr. High school. The Lifeguard puts on a lifejacket on you, because your parents paid for it, and they’re funding you, but after that, you’re swung around and the Lifeguard plunks you right into the deep end with a grin and a cackle. Well, fuck you too, Lifeguard. So much for guarding, you insolent prick.
But anyway, now you’re in the deep end with virtually everyone else. Here’s where things get weird.
You’ve got the old people (or, well, not old…comfortable more like it. You know, they’ve got mortgages and a cosy career path) who are swimming and keeping afloat. They haven’t got a lifejacket, and they look tired, but they’ve been in the deep end long enough to have figured out how to swim, so they’re doing grand.
And then you’ve got the people who were just dropped in not too long ago. There are people without lifejackets who are floundering. And then there are people with lifejackets who are doing alright. There’s basically people of all shapes and sizes with all sorts of life jackets – some barely existent, or tattered, or too tight – and they’re all handling themselves differently.
Now, where you put yourself in this pool, and how you define your lifejacket and your swimming capabilities is totally up to you.
But the way I see it, I’ve got a great lifejacket, but I can’t fucking swim to save my life. A lifejacket can only get you so far. Sometimes, if you’re like me, you’re floating, but you’re floating face down in the water when air is very clearly the other way up but how the fuck do you even turn?!?
So that’s it. When older, successful, comfortable people tell me that students don’t know stress, I have no idea what to say, besides seethe in silence. Nobody wants to hear an old, winded metaphor. The point is that with age comes experience, and in this, that experience is your capability to stay afloat. You learn to swim over time, and dealing with stress is a lot like that. Things get easier as you get older because you know how to deal with it. The amount of stress is irrelevant, it’s the ‘dealing with it’ part that catches you.
In fact, the depth of the pool doesn’t even matter. Perhaps older people are wading way out at the edge where the water is as deep as it gets, and I’m only in the middle where the water is just deep enough that I can’t reach the bottom. The point is that I’m still struggling to not-drown while you folks have your head above water.
Should I feel bad? Oh, look, they’re doing okay and they don’t have a lifejacket and they’re in much deeper water! But it only takes a couple inches to drown someone. I’m sure the person who’s drown in a toilet bowl because some assassin’s dropped down and shoved their heads into it would still drown, even if they were, for whatever reason, wearing a lifejacket.
But I don’t know, who am I to say anything, huh? I’m not even a proper adult in some places yet. I’m not doing ‘adult’ things (whatever the hell that is, honestly, who’s defining adulthood?). Maybe I’m just procrastinating like a mofo right now, and the swirl of information in my head is making me vomit these pointless thoughts and metaphors about life (great image, thanks).
I know I’ll be keeping this idea in my mind, at least store is in the ‘to-view-in-ten-years’, and see how it is then.