Smell The Roses

Smell the Roses

There are so many things that I am passionate about, but I feel that my main belief is to make the time to relax and look at the world in motion. Too many days and nights, the population of the world worries about ridiculous things that they have no control of. With the state of our country and the fast pace of our crazy lives, people have reached what I consider to be the ultimate stress level. Everyone needs to take some deep breaths and pause for a minute.

Almost every night of my high school life, I am piled with homework. On top of homework, I also have soccer practice, friends, studying, and the mountain of college applications that I continue to chisel away at. All of these things overwhelm me at times. A prime example of this was two weeks ago, when I felt the weight of the world crashing down on me. I had four projects due all at the same time, it was the first week of soccer practice, my car was breaking down, and nothing seemed to be going my way. I started looking at things negatively, which magnified all the bumps in the road to ten times their actual size. I knew I had so much to get done and little time, but on Saturday of that weekend, I took the entire day off. I believe in weekends. Even though things were piling up, by taking Saturday off, I found that the next day I was more productive because I felt well rested and happy. In the end, it turned out that I finished everything I was supposed to purely because I believed that everything would go how it needed. I rolled with the punches that had been thrown at me from every possible direction while also giving myself time to pause and gather my thoughts.

Sometimes I find myself moving in slow motion, pausing, looking at the world around me. I want to reach out to those people who have not learned to just– relax. To the left, I see the mother driving her mini van while rubbing her wrinkled brow, and to the right, the uptight man in his truck speeds to get somewhere he doesn’t want to be. I believe that if the people in this world could see themselves, they would be horrified to find that they have never slowed down. When was the last time they had a picnic, took a personal day, or even jumped on a trampoline? Life has passed them by simply because they have not taken the time to slow down.

In my sixteen years on this planet, I have learned many things. One of the most important things I have learned is to stop and relax. During my relaxing time, I ponder over many things. For instance, what happened to sit down dinners instead of fast food? Why can’t others take time to help someone even if it means inconveniencing themselves? Why don’t people just loosen up, slow down, and let go? Life isn’t a race, so why do people try to make it one? My list of questions to this fast- paced world is endless, but, to all those who read this, I have one question for you: When was the last time you stopped to smell a rose?