Happiness. And Africans and Kanye.

I don't have it that bad. In fact, my life is pretty amazing. But I find myself needing a reminder of that sometimes. I'm about to graduate from college. College that was mostly paid for by a scholarship. I have good health. Yeah I tell my roommate how lucky he is because he doesn’t have to wear contacts but besides my eyesight I have it pretty good. If you're reading this on your laptop, smartphone, or iPad then you probably don't have it that bad either. Your situation isn't exactly like mine but I bet you have running water, heating/AC, a reasonable food supply, and at least a few pairs of shoes. We've already fulfilled Maslow's first step and are doing better than 90% of the world. But when I look at those pictures of kids in Africa simply kicking a soccer ball around having the time of their lives I almost feel sort of bad for us. Here they are with high infancy mortality rates, genocide, and a climate that would make a cactus whine but they could care less that their new Mercedes got a scratch on it.

So here I am preaching about how great we have it and how we should be thankful and you're reading this thinking sarcastically, "I'm glad this guy is so amazing. He seems to have it all figured out." Well, I don't. This is as much for me as it is for anyone else. I've been feeling kind of down lately and honestly I just piss myself off when that happens. Why do I feel down? Because I have a lot of homework? As Kanye says: "My degrees will keep me warm!" He's absolutely right. That sarcastic, narcissistic (and amazing) rapper has a point. We can get so caught up in the system of the world. "You need to go to college and get a degree so you can get a job and make money." Well, yes, you probably should go to college because its only going to make your life easier. But it shouldn't be what defines your existence. That degree will not tell you a joke in two years nor will it hug you after you walk across the stage. The greatest value of my college experience is not what I've learned in the classroom. It's the social skills and lessons in being a real person. I'm happy to realize that my life is so much more than going to class. I'm happy to have great friends around me. I'm happy I have running water to wake me up in the morning before I go to class. I'm happy.

Relationships. And electrical outlets.

Aren’t we interesting? I miss elementary school when I actually sat in bed one night agonizing over whether or not to write “I like you, do you like me?” in a girl’s Valentine’s Day card. In a way, that’s pretty much how it works now but with more subtlety and less candy. If I see a girl in my finance class who looks cute and seems wholesome, then my best bet is to ask her if she can show me how to find a bond’s amortization value then hope to get her name so I can Facebook her. Hell, maybe we’ll even meet downtown and share $5 beers while yelling over the drunken buzz of Tots. Gee, I can only hope. While that may seem pessimistic and sophomoric, I haven’t had the best luck with relationships lately and I am only a senior. But seriously, why is it so hard to find someone? Everyone wants the same thing, right? Imagine you were trying to charge your computer but the socket wouldn’t let the plug in until the plug bought the socket a bunch of flowers and promised it wouldn’t go plugging into other sockets when it was in another room. This would frustrate you. All you want to do is plug your computer in but your power connection tandem is too busy arguing over why the plug hasn’t been texting as much recently. It’s probably for the better anyway because in two weeks the socket is going to realize the plug is actually European and there was really no hope for them in the first place. So what is this European plug to do? Well, it should probably find an adaptor. When I got my Blackberry it came with five different adaptors. At first I thought Blackberry was trying to tell me that I should travel more but recently I’ve realized they’re really just saying it takes a lot more work than just simply plugging in. I’ve got to adapt.

Finding the right girl isn’t easy, a fact I’ve had to resign myself to. It would be nice to think she’s just sitting next to me in my finance class, but that’s probably not the case. She probably doesn’t even go to this school. You might be asking, “Nick, you’re only 21, why are you so concerned with this right now?” I would answer that, “I’ve been asking myself that same question… hey we think alike, what’s your number?” So what should I be doing then? Just plugging into different sockets until one fits right? No, that’s how computers get viruses. Maybe I’ll just power down for a little bit and let the sockets come to me.