My poem titled “Weak Bodies”

Things that suck about having anxiety #1

I feel like more people have anxiety disordes than people in general think, and unfortunately, I am one of those people. I’m starting a series of posts that share what it’s like to deal with anxiety. This is hard, because I don’t like to feel vulnerable or embarassed, but my hopes are that someone suffering with something similar can know they are not alone.

The first thing that sucks about having anxiety is watching something on tv that, even though it’s completely irrational, makes you feel anxious. Usually it’s a situation that you suddenly imagine you were in. It could be people crawling through air ducks, or people lost in a forest, or even people in a crowded train car. These are things you avoid because they are triggers, and even though you are safe and sound in your living room, your breath has sped up and your stomach is now upset. 

I often avoid going to movies for the same reason. Crowds and being stuck in one place don’t go over well with me, so it’s hard to keep it together when the explosions are loud and the action is intense. 

It sounds silly, but the mind of an anxious person is an irrational one. Accepting that is one of the most difficult things someone can do.

-Collins

“_____ series is totally a rip off of ______ series!”

This seems to be a statement I’ve encountered a lot lately. And it made me wonder why people seem to say it so much.

Perhaps it’s because a series’ fan base is so loyal they cannot fathom another series that holds similar attributes. They feel they hold some sort of territorial grip over the author and their works. They might feel they need to “protect” the author from copycats. Another reason could be that the person complaining is not well read, that is to say that they have only read the series and live by it, and the second they read another book it will of course be in the same genre. This is because they enjoy the genre of the series they like. This might make them jump to the conclusion that any other series in that genre is a rip off the one they enjoy.

What they don’t realize though, is that there are only so many ideas out there before you have to start reinventing the old ones. That would be an explanation as to why there are hundreds of books related to dystopian civilizations and people having to go through trials. This is not to say that these books are all the same. On the contrary, each author puts their own spin on the genre. Just because an author decides to sew a story about magicians does not automatically make it a Harry Potter rip off. There is also the matter of trends. Vampires was the last big one and many authors jumped on that wagon. We are now in the trend of dystopian civilizations and trials.

So just enjoy each book you read and understand that you are reading a unique work, separate from any other.

-Collins

A photograph can speak a thousand words

“97”

This is a photo I took after a very important event in my life. I won’t say too much about it. But when I look at it, it is a reminder of the dangers of things that we may over look sometimes. That we need to remain vigilant in our lives, keep our eyes open.

-Turner

The “I Have a Complaint” Generation

Nowhere in history has there ever been so many people complaining. We do it without even thinking about it. In traffic, in line at a store, at the post office. We seem to have begun to believe that we are the most important thing out there and that we deserve everything. Well everyone is important, but not in that way. We do have a right to free speech, but I think that right should have come with a disclaimer: *Do not use if you are going to say something hurtful, unnecessary, or just plain stupid.

Social media has created a platform for unhappy people to post complaints about experiences. Often they write long winded statements that make little to no sense due to grammatical errors, or just jumbled thoughts being haphazardly typed. They demand that the company does something to fix the problem. But the problem seems to actually be that these people don’t realize that, say, a company’s Facebook page is not run by the VP of communications or the CEO (shocker!) There are often staffed by off shore workers, who do their best to reply to complaints. Due to the sheer amount of complaints though, it is impossible to reply to them all. That is when I see the same person posting later complaints about their previous complaint being “ignored” or “deleted.”

Honestly, if someone had a genuine complaint, don’t turn to your computer to make it heard. Your first step should be talking to a real person. Ask to speak to a manager at the time of the issue, not a few days later when the issue is past. If need be, use your phone and call a customer service line.

It seems that things that should be voiced as serious complaints and things that are simply an inconvenience or an accident are being splattered against companies unfairly. I recall seeing a post on a major retailer from a customer who was outraged that she bought some produce there, and then discovered that a competitor had the same produce for .03 cents cheaper… .03 cents. Needless to say, I don’t think that deserved a long post with many exclamation points.

The “Me” generation has become synonymous with complaining. We need to take a step back and re-evaluate the things we are experiencing. If the experience is not life-threatening, or dangerous, or extremely offensive, chances are that it doesn’t warrant complaining. A good example of this would be customers who complain about a major retailer saying they never have enough registers open and the lines are super long. Fair enough. But if you know this, why do you make the decision to keep going back there at the peak busy hours of the day. You have the option of shopping somewhere else. The world does not revolve around you. I get that sometimes shopping can be a little annoying or something might be out of stock, but that’s just life. I also find it funny when a customer declares to social media that they will no longer be shopping at the retailer and they are going to tell everyone they know not to as well. Do you really think you are going to boycott this company and that your shopping there really matters to them? For every person that refuses to shop at a retailer, a thousand more ARE shopping there.

Another interesting thing seems to happen when the technology we depend on doesn’t work. Most people tend to flip out. But if you go with the flow, you know that’s just the nature of things. There is no point on getting upset over something out of your control and you should expect things like that to happen. Your online shopping is going badly? The shopping cart won’t work or the site isn’t working? Do not get outraged at a customer service rep, because technology isn’t perfect and that’s just the way it is sometimes.

Basically the moral of this story is that people have become very selfish and self-centered. Complaints are warranted sometimes, absolutely, but the amount of complaints I see about silly things, it’s absurd. Everyone just needs to take a step back and just roll with the punches. If everyone tried to do that more often, the shopping experience would be much less hostile.

-Collins

Tuesday, snoozeday.

Apparently I didn’t post yesterday, whoops! Sometimes life gets in the way. But that’s okay, isn’t it? To be so involved in your life and the things you do that you forget to go on social media sites? As much as I love blogging and writing and anything else that I do on the internet, sometimes it’s good to just disconnect. I’ve always wondered how it would have felt being in a time when technology wasn’t around. Not even the 50’s or 60’s, as I know those times were much different then now, but the 1700’s-1800’s-1900’s. When there were no vehicles or proper washing machines. Would we survive in those times? If all of our technology was to be taken away, all of our engineering and scientific discoveries, undiscovered, how would we react? How would we function, seeing as we’ve never been asked or required to do it before? What are your thoughts on this? Do you think you could handle if we had a technology blackout?

-Turner