I don’t know about you, gentle reader, but I have many pet peeves. Some of them are rather obvious: people who cut in front of me in line, walking in the rain and getting my woolen socks completely soaked, the sniffing of a thousand snotty noses (if you have ever been in a library trying to study, you know what I mean. I know you can’t help but have a cold, but by the hammer of Thor, use a tissue!!). But the epitome for me, the peeviest of pet peeves, is the apology post.

I hate apology posts. They are annoying and infuriating. When you avidly follow someone’s blog and they suddenly stop posting, it is normal to feel some irritation. After all, it’s not everyone who can use MS Paint to creatively depict the traumas of their childhood, right? If you’re a super-nice person (which I flatter myself I am), you might be slightly worried about the blogger’s well-being. It’s not like this person is your best friend or anything, but they make you laugh, and you miss them when they’re gone.

And then the apology post comes along. Occasionally, the post simply clarifies the unavoidable disasters that come along with being alive. And then the jokes and tomfoolery continue, and all is right to the world. But most of the time, all the blogger has to say for his- or herself is something along the lines of, “I was too busy living my life to give you any advice about what to do if there’s a zombie apocalypse. Sorry, bro! My bad!”

The fury that arises from reading this is understandable.

I hope this post will fall into the former category instead of the latter. I am probably also kidding myself about my importance in your life, but hey, everyone needs their delusions of grandeur, and this just happens to be mine. Deal with it.

A plethora of minor annoyances have conspired against me during the last week that have prevented me from writing. Mainly, my USB key conking out on me and effectively separating me from all my college papers, including the ones that were due the day of and the day after the occurrence, put a bit of a stitch in my plans. Granted, they were only short one-to-two page response papers for the reading I had to do for class, but it was still quite distressing and it definitely set me back a couple hours. See, I am usually a very organized person. So my plans after my seminar on Theory and Method in Near Eastern Studies had been to prepare myself for the next day and then work ahead a bit, as my classes on Tuesdays run from 9 am to 4:30 pm. And then my USB key quit on me, the cheeky bastard, and changed all my plans. And I do not like having my plans changed.

And so the week continued. I wandered around the frosty campus like a zombie, exhausted from trying to catch up with work and feeling like I would never succeed. That is another one of my pet peeves: being sleepy. I like to sleep, and despite being a college student, I’m rather good at it. Unless stupid technological problems get in the way. Humph.

On top of that, I found out that one of my closest friends is planning to study abroad in London during our fall semester senior year. Without me. If you, gentle reader, have a best friend, you can imagine how I feel. If you don’t have a best friend (get thee one quickly! They are saving graces!), try and use your imagination. This is someone who can turn your day around, who you can laugh with, cry with, hug it out with, sing “My Heart Will Go On” with while you rock on a rocking chair with your arms outspread and your best friend’s arms around your waist.

Like so. Except I am not a polar bear/anteater hybrid, unless liking Klondike bars makes me one.

And then imagine it all being taken away from you by a prestigious acting program in England’s capital.

Excuse me if I retract my Anglophilic tendencies for a little while. (I have been watching 30 Rock, mostly because it’s funny, but also slightly in protest.)

Anyways, Violet Merryweather (not really my best friend’s name, but I told her she could choose her pseudonym, and she is very imaginative) is applying to go abroad, and even though I myself flirted with the idea of study abroad, and even though I am planning to go to Rome this summer (and yes, you will be hearing about that more, BECAUSE I AM SO EXCITED I AM GOING TO JUST PUT THE CAPS LOCK ON AND TYPE RANDOM LETTERS ASDFKSDFKASFJKASDFJA!), I am a saaaaaaaaad panda.

This is me.

But you know what? I’m not so sad anymore. Sure, my beloved essays from freshman year are lost to me. Sure, Violet might not be here next semester. But I’ve had some time and space to think, and that has allowed me to gain some perspective.

And this is where we get to the second part of my post. My advice may not be sage, but I hope you get something out of it, and I feel that it needs to be said.

I think a lot of people are under the impression that high school is a depressing suckfest and that everything gets better once you get to college. And it is true that some things about college are pretty excellent. You meet wonderful people, learn wonderful things; I have changed so much in these last three years, and I would like to think that it’s for the better. But the things that used to annoy you and make you sad in high school? They still happen in college, and they are still pretty annoying and/or saddening. Technology still sometimes lets you down. Friends still sometimes leave. And you know why?

Because this is life. Life is not something that’s put on hold until you finish high school or college, a magical fairy godmother that bonks you on the head with her wand once you move out and get a job. Life is happening to you right now. And sometimes it will be sad, and sometimes it will be happy. And often, there’s not much you can do besides accepting it and giving it a smile.

Violet, despite my whining, I’m super-excited for you!!!! (I figure you’ll be reading this soon enough.) And USB, we shall be united someday, I am sure of it.

And now I must depart. Farewell, gentle reader!