I wish I could say these stories have been exaggerated but alas, I am just your typical redhead who’s blonde at the roots.
Minimal acts of stupidity include but are not limited to; spending my summer funds on clothes and beauty products instead of a laptop and new phone; shattering two iPhone screens, hence the reason for needing a new one; doing the dishes more than doing my homework; and maybe giving that one guy one too many chances (I now realize that fooling around with a friend behind my back should limit a person to zero more chances.)
Among the previous “Shoulda had a V-8!” *slaps forehead* moments I caused for myself in 2015, here are my top 5.
^Me
1. The 11:59 Oops
First of all I started out the New Year a bit late…I got caught up chatting with my friend Joan—yes, we were alone hanging out at my parents house on New Year’s Eve—when I suddenly went “WAIT! WHAT TIME IS IT?!” just to find that it was exactly midnight when we looked at our phones. We barely made it, but we did start our year out on the right foot. Literally. We stood on one leg for the rest of the minute. Talk about an exciting New Year’s Eve experience.
Lesson You Should Learn for 2016: The lesson here goes deeper than me saying “have a super great New Year’s Eve!” In 2016, you should remember the connections and the conversations you have with people you love! Life is about different relationships, we often get caught up in our schedules and when we are with our friends and family, we’re glued to our phones! We have to spend time listening to them and learning about them!
2. These Bruises Make For Better Conversation
I didn’t get a bed before I moved into my new place at the beginning of the year. Whoops. Somehow a place to sleep at night or during the day or whenever I needed to take a break from the world of papers and exams slipped my mind. I spent about a week on my bedroom floor, waking up every day with a new bruise. A lady came up to me at work one of the days asking if I was in an abusive relationship…
Lesson You Should Learn for 2016: Sometimes, you have to put yourself first. Obvi, you’re going to run into finals week this year and want to cry. You’re going to be so stressed out by everything going on in your life that your body will actually crave a massage from a tanned man. It’s okay to put yourself first, if you don’t, you’ll never be able to give 100% to the parts of your life that deserve it!
3. Go Seahawks!
I. Don’t. Like. Sports. I have probably said this in at least 2 of my articles just because I think it’s important for people to understand and accept this about me. However, on Super Bowl Sunday, my roommates and I thought that it would be fun to throw a Super Bowl party! We invited all the friends we thought would enjoy one – the turn out ended up being a male to female ratio of like 5:1 – we provided chips and soda and other friends brought various snacks. The problem with this little get together was this: We didn’t have cable. Or a properly working laptop. So the lovely men who graced us with their presence did not get much game-watching time in.
Lesson You Should Learn for 2016: Plan. Plan. Plan. I could have thrown a better Superbowl party, I really could have. In fact, I could have done a lot of things better if I had planned them out. Not every part of your 2016 has to be written in your Lilly Pulitzer planner but remember: some areas should be planned for so you can have fun.
4. Spontaneous Road trips…Big Advocate.
Granted, this next stupid decision is at the very top of my #NoRagrets list. A desired tattoo in the name of this musician doesn’t even explain the half it when it comes to my love for Frank Turner. Positive Songs for Negative People literally saved my life. Ask me about Eulogy. Ask me about Recovery. Ask me about I Am Disappeared. Simply by declaring my devotion to this music I’m already displaying my soul to the world. Anyway, when the opportunity to see a Frank Turner concert for 30 bucks presented itself, you can bet I dropped everything to make it happen. My BFF was starring – in the ensemble – of a musical and had a show the day before the concert and the day after, so in order to make it we left at 5 AM after less than three hours of sleep to Boise, Idaho and drove back to Salt Lake City the next day. Frank Turner’s tour members invited us to get drinks after the show…we had to decline because we are under 21. Instead we got stalked by a creepy taxi driver and lost in a parking garage worse than City Creek’s for an hour and a half. The opening band ended up following me on Twitter, though so #Worthit. @SkinnyLister
Lesson You Should Learn for 2016: But also, have fun. This is college, collegiettes! You’re never going to have a time in your life when your body will be fully functional on 3 hours of sleep and some Red Bull. Make memories with your friends and have stories to tell your grandchildren. You’ll catch up on sleep eventually, you’ll be able to write that paper, you’ll have time to shower after. Have fun and be reckless.
5. Just, never do this. Ever.
It may have been the week before finals week. All of my roommates and I may all have jobs and extracurricular activities. It also may have been during Thanksgiving weekend. However, none of this changes the fact that the top stupidest thing I did in 2015 was decide to wait until the very last second (AKA – midnight December 1st) to move out of and clean my two-story duplex. OK, I’m not a huge idiot. I started the moving process a week prior and really attempted to finish my share of packing all that my roommate and I owned into plastic bags. Unfortunately, the stress of moving weighed me so far down that I think I was actually physically unable to do anything except lie on my floor and stare at the ceiling. Until midnight. The day we were supposed to be moved out. Suddenly I had, I wouldn’t call it a burst of energy by any means, but something more along the lines of a zombie programmed to get ‘er done. Moving plastic bag after plastic bag in the winter snow proved to be just as unpleasant as it sounds. We finished the whole shebang at 7 AM only to fall asleep in our new apartment with a newly broken furnace. Ask me what it’s like to live in the Stone Age and I will tell you it is the worst pain I have ever felt.
Lesson You Should Learn for 2016: Procrastination is the devil. It will ruin your 2016 simply by eating your soul. Don’t let it. I know it’s more fun to become a permanent fixture on the couch, but that’s wasting your 2016 away! You will always have something better to do than nothing.
I hope you can feel a lot better about your year after reading about mine. Happy New Year, and here’s to making more stupid decisions.