Hi my dear inner thoughts,

I know you’re hiding there, just chilling within the crevices of my big ol’ brain. Lowkey, it’s nice to address you one-on-one for once. And, while I know you’ve always been there ever since the moment I was born and still even there now (granted, thinking I’m insane for trying to address you), I see you, I recognize you, and I just wanna have a little talk.

Now, I realize that we’ve been going through a rough patch recently. With all the emotions that’s been rolling through me from the dramas of senior year, you seem quite urgent to take over my brain at any given moment. Every time I want to sleep, you’re there to continuously rant about how much I screwed myself over. Or even when I’m supposed to have fun, you’re there to mutate me into a grumpy, anti-fun guy. 

So, the first thing I wanna cover is my overthinking. You’ve seen it, I’ve seen it, and I’m pretty sure the entire lit class knows about it (ahem, my previous blog) and, while I personally don’t mind it, I understand that this is something I gotta start to change. Throughout the past three months of my life, I made an amazing friend in my life. Yet, I guess through my sheer ability to overthink every possible interaction, I lost them a bit ago. Go figure right. Welp, the lesson to learn? Let’s try to not try to read too much into people’s actions, kapeesh?

Secondly, along the lines of reading into people’s actions, let’s not get jealous of other people. Just because they didn’t invite you to something, include you to something, or choose you for something doesn’t really mean I’m not a good friend. Like sometimes, they just got other friends they wanna spend time with and that’s not a reason for me to freak out. It’s just selfish for me to want their time only to myself yet, at this moment, why am I still butthurt like a child? Being chill should basically just be a given, alright?

Then thirdly, my dear thoughts, we gotta calm down on the response to the emotional rollercoaster that I’m going through. Just because I’m feeling a bit down (or just drowning in the feels), it does not mean let’s go become the least productive human being on the planet. Like bro, I got blogs to write (it’s not like this has taken like 4 hours to come up with this idea or anything) and homework to keep on procrastinating. I’m a busy man and I’d rather not become mopey and just lie around complaining (I’m sorry friends who had to experience that but thanks for being there for me).

And ultimately, to also neutralize the pains of these three points, let’s try to put a bit more emphasis on positivity. Throughout my life, I realized that I view a lot of things in more of a pessimistic hue, viewing the worst in every case and hoping the worst didn’t happen. Yet, after self-reflection, a more positive mindset, it would not only a) help me not overthink every scenario ever (which also connects to the pangs of jealousy) but also b) help me cope better with my emotions.

I’d enjoy my life just that much more.

Now looking ahead, I hope this six-hundred or so word chat is able to clarify who I want to become in the future. Sure, I know I’ve messed up too many times to count during this overly stressful year, but hopefully, with these new terms we can truly learn from these misdeeds. That through overcoming this time of newfound social adversity, we can both out as a better, happier, and whole individual. And hopefully, maybe possibly, I’d be able to apologize to my friend, to have them by my side, and to enjoy these final three months of what will be the best, most carefree three months of my life.

It’s been your other bud in my mind,

• Jeremy.

P.S. Unrelated but can we also try to sleep a bit earlier? Thanks.

So have you ever had that situation where you’ve completely blown a problem out of proportion? Have you completely panicked and overdone something by about 1000%? Welp, if that occasionally applies to you, I’m jealous because for me, that is something that I experience on the daily.

So welcome to the life of Jeremy, the master of overthinking.

If you don’t already know, overthinking (as defined by google) is “[to] think about (something) too much or for too long” and it doesn’t even have to apply to one specific thing. You could be overthinking about that test problem, overthinking one logistical aspect, or even just overthinking one small action. If you can think of it, I bet that I can make it over-thunk.

For example, I will overthink in…

School

For me, multiple choice tests are not my forte. Even though the right answer is buried somewhere in there, my mind will end up jumbling up all the information. Sure, I’m good at process of elimination but there will always those two choices I end up having to pick between. They both could be right but I always try to think it out.

Boy is almost always a mistake.

From what I’ve learned from days (albeit more like months) of sat prep, ap prep, or any darn class that offers multiple choice, my instinct are almost always right. For some reason, every time I think the problem is iffy, I’ll go look at it, think it over, and brainstorm possible ideas. And in that moment when I do is when I’ll finally mix up Mesopotamia with the Incas or Lagrange’s theorem with the ideal gas law. I cry a little bit inside every time I think about all the points I’ve missed from this stupid blunder.

Social environments

Now before I completely surprise you, I wanna say one thing. If you’re looking at some of my previous blogs you might think I’m a robot or something, I’d like to just take this moment to say that yes, I am human and, yes, I do experience emotions too. Now back to the blog, sorry.

So additionally, I’m also prone to this phenomenon in social situations, whether that be with friends, family, or (more prodomonentally) to that female individual that occasionally happens to pop in my mind. For some reason, I guess I just stress about every little snap I send or every single comma I use and it usually doesn’t turn out great either.

So specifically, let’s take this female *ahem* distraction that occurred a long while back, where I lowkey became distracted and infatuated in trying to make progress and spending probably half an hour on hangouts every day. Let’s say instead of climbing the ladder, we hit the snake that went past the start and into the negative zone. I guess trying to perform a rhetorical analysis on three word phrases was not the move.

Planning

But lastly, sometimes my talent isn’t always for naught. Sometimes, it doesn’t cause me to lose my chances and friends. Sometimes, it actually makes good things happen.

I’ve found that, through my death stress attacks and thinking of every scenario humanly possible, it actually makes me quite a good organizer. It doesn’t really matter if it’s pasta parties for cross country, a quick night with friends, or hosting one of the largest charity events here at North, it makes me anticipate almost everything! It brings me to the realization that not many other organizers can visualize and helps address problems prior to them arising!

But even though I do overthink, it still has it’s benefits and drawbacks. However, one thing I don’t want you to confuse is that overthinking does not (EVER) mean is that it makes you indecisive. In actuality, it’s this overthinking that helps cement my decisiveness and help me content and satisfied with my decision.

So, if you’re are gusty human, someone who’s rash, or just afraid that you’re overthinking too much, don’t be! Overthinking is a great trait and (from my half-an-hour think time before I fell asleep) thought process, I can guarantee that it will be a mistake… I mean it’s a choice that you will probably seemingly not seem to probably maybe accordingly regret.

It’s two am. My vision blurs. I’m dizzy. Then suddenly, I’m out.

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Welp dang, there goes four hours of my life. Now I need to work ever harder to make that back up.

This is kind of a weekly occurrence that has revealed one fact to me: that sleep is pretty pointless. Sure, we need it and sure, it feels nice but its a granderous waste of time. As many say, time is money and I’d like to have some more of both. 

So, to begin with, I just imagine how much more work I could get done in this time! Like think of the options! I could do so. Much. MORE. HOMEWORK!

Like just take it into perspective. I’m sitting here writing this blog at 12:30am and I still have an MVC test to study for tomorrow. While yes, I could go to sleep, that sounds pretty ridiculous. I have my priorities: 

1. Doing all my homework
2. Doing all the extra, optional homework to save my grades
3. Writing all my college apps
4. Not sleeping

Additionally, when else am I supposed to socialize with my friends? During school? Pshhh. You wish. It’s gotta be at 11pm at night. This is the prime time where I can to complain to my friends about every stupid driver I run into on the road, where all the meldramatic tea happens, and when the best jokes happen.

But last of all, this extra time for what’s important: video games and netflix. LIke I still got 6 seasons of the Mentalist I want to binge, I still have Tiny Tower to grind (curse you Kevin, I’ll never catch up), and I have video games that wont play themselves.

And after a long, sleepless night. Everythings fine! It’s not like I still manage to fall asleep in class once after drinking two cups of coffee or anything like that. And it’s not like my grades have slipped or my running has stagnated or anything. 

Nope, I have no idea what your talking about. I like to think I’m doing a darn awesome job.

~

But, in all seriousness, exhaustion is a major issue that plagues our society today. With extreme lack of sleep, studies have shown that there are numerous mental and physical consequences. 

For example, a lack of sleep can lead to problems with obesity and heart disease. Additionally, since sleep is the body’s natural recovery tool, exercising becomes hard and your body doesn’t recover. But most of all, a lack of sleep can prove fatal. Over 40% of all car crashes result from tired individuals and additional studies have shown that a lack of sleep is as, if not more, dangerous than drunk driving!

And while you might be thinking that extra episode, that extra conversation is completely worth it, think again. The dangers of sleep deprivation aren’t worth such a risk. Sure, I can justify staying up late for homework assignments, tests, etc, but please understand. Being me isn’t the way to go. I don’t know how I’ve pulled it off and in all honesty, it’s a painful way to live. And plus, you don’t want to end up like this situation on the right.

But don’t worry! If you struggle from distractions (like how I use to), apps like “Flipd” help lock my phone out for a set amount of time and completely remove me from distractions. Or, even just somewhere quiet really helps you stay focused and planning out your day helps you stay on top of things. 

And hey, second semester is just around the corner so just go get some sleep. You’ll need it. 

Or… just pull a Jeremy and continue to overwhelm yourself even more (and also end up forgetting to post your blog on time too). 

Everybody gets sick sometime in their lives. It’s just a way of life; a factor sometimes outside of our range of control. It’s almost… random. Sometimes, people just get sick more often than others and sometimes people just get more sick than others and it’s just outside our range of our control. 

However, even though this happens, being sick should almost never be an excuse. You’re not the only one that’s been sick before, there’s been billions that have come before you that has gotten sick and they’ve turned out fine. And moreover, with our technology today, it’s most likely not going to be our last cold anytime soon.

But hey, some say that being sick is a reason to not go to work or school. And I agree with that — to a degree. As ABC states, there are two reasons to not go to work: if their symptoms prove too difficult or painful to overcome or, if your disease is highly contagious. And really, you shouldn’t go to work or school if one of those two cases are prevalent. If you attend a highly packed environment like Naperville North, you risk causing an epidemic-like occurrence which would affect hundreds if not thousands. And also, if you can’t manage to stay focused or even functional throughout a small section of time like a period, it’s probably better to say home.

But even though you are staying home, being sick isn’t an excuse to do nothing, to get extensions on tests or deadlines that are coming up. You’re home! You now have an extra eight to ten hours of time. Sure, you really should be using some of that time to catch up on sleep and rest up. However, you’re not going to be doing that all day. So instead, many of us spend hours upon hours of these days doing nothing: watching TV shows, texting. Then, we come in the next day having done nothing and ask for an extension. 

Why though?

There’s literally no reason to. Even if you feel sluggish less alert as the American Psychological Association claims (which are symptoms of some colds), The Wall Street Journal also discovered that there are “no significant relationships… between mood changes and nasal secretions, or between performance changes and symptom scores, sleep duration or mood changes… [and that] cold symptoms… aren’t related to changes in performance”.  So, instead of spending all that time on your phone or in front of the TV, you could be making much better use of your time studying, reading, doing work. 

Calling in a sick day isn’t an excuse to not do work. And, unless your suffering from extreme migraines, headaches, is permanently bedridden, or sitting in or in front of a toilet all day, you have no excuses. You’re fully functional and able to work! As even if you do feel sluggish or off, it’s mostly a state of mind.

However, I do have a couple warnings. Do not try to over-exert yourself physically when you are sick. As researched extensively by Time (and also observed in myself), exercising while you are experiencing symptoms make the disease worse and or more dangerous to your health. Also, do not try to work when you are suffering from something that affects your brain. These could prove catastrophic to your safety, that of others, and your carrier. 

Now in the end, please understand that being sick isn’t an excuse, that the world doesn’t revolve around to care about you. 

Your life, your impact, your legacy is entirely in your hands — not those of others. If you want to make dreams come true, do it with your abilities and your powers! Don’t expect them to just happen. There will become a day where you stop receiving sympathy and care for being sick so stop being a Sally. This is your life so go out there, give it your, and make your step on our planet; life your life free of regrets of what could’ve been.