First Golf Lesson

So, golf has become one of my favorite pastimes and I am extremely enthusiastic in learning more about the sport and improving my game. I met with the golf pro at a local country club tonight to look at a few different clubs in order to get fit for a new set. The pro is extremely helpful and I have been a part of a few of his clinics in the past, so I knew that he was quite a jokester. As we were chatting, we talked about school and golf and the unfortunate weather that hasn’t been ideal for the start of a golf season.

Then, Will mentioned that I seem to be a genuinely happy individual. I quickly smirked and asked him what there was to be sad about when I’m swinging my clubs? We talked s’more and hit s’more balls. It is not uncommon to hear that golf teaches as many lessons off the course as it does on the course. I definitely experienced that phenomenon first hand tonight. During my round I kept thinking back to the question I asked Will: what is there to be unhappy about? 

I got to thinking, maybe I’m just an optimistic person? I believe in the notion that I am  extremely blessed and no matter what happens, no matter what obstacles or challenges I’m faced with, life is good and I’m extremely lucky. 

I reflected upon all of the things I’ve learned, and am attempting to master, thus far with my new hobby: patience, discipline, pride, tolerance, humility, and self confidence. This is in no way a push to get every person to swing a set of clubs, but rather it should act as a sense of motivation. If golf is teaching me all of these wonderful lessons, imagine what you could learn by doing something you love!

The best part of talking with Will was his positive attitude about my senior year of college. I explained, with much laughter, that I am going to be taking a few easy classes to put myself outside my comfort zone (specifically, a painting class & piano lessons). The golf pro agreed that taking these classes might help as I move forward with the field of psychology. He mentioned that he took piano lessons while he was learning how to teach golf, simply because he wanted to experience life as student, so he would better understand his students when he finally got to teaching. What a great way of thinking about his career, right? Will’s outlook on his career made me feel very lucky that I was under his wing because I now know how much he truly cares about each one of us, more than just golfers. The golf pro may have applied this lesson to teaching golf, but everyone would benefit from stepping outside their own shoes and thinking from another person’s perspective. 

With all of this knowledge after my first day back at the golf course, I cannot wait to see how much I’ve learned at the end of the summer. (Maybe I’ll even learn how to read a green and beat a few select people on the course!)

L-O-V-E

Well, hello there!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted on this wonderful blog, but I’m back, baby! 180 days since my last post, so I guess I have a lot to catch up on. For starters, I wanted to rethink on my goal: to use my writing as a way to express my thankfulness for everything beautiful, loving, and wonderful around me. During my reflection, a smile slowly emerged on my face because I am so incredibly blessed and the past couple months have been a few of the best in my life. The one word that keeps popping into my head is LOVE. (I will probably be extremely sappy and sentimental for the remainder of this post. You’ve been warned!)

This past weekend I was extremely honored, and lucky, to attend a beautiful wedding that let old and new friends join together to celebrate the Love of two amazing people. From the moment I met the radiant groom until we said our goodbyes the afternoon after, I don’t think I ever stopped smiling. I strongly believe something about Love is responsible for a certain amount of one’s happiness. The psychologist in me wants to try a quick experiment: think about something/someone extremely important to you (something/someone you Love)…got it?…are you smiling? Exactly. You’re happy when you remember the last time you spent time with your aunt or the last bite of that delicious ice cream sandwich.

One of my favorite passages from the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, was used during the wedding ceremony and the powerful words have been dancing around in my head since Saturday afternoon. The passage concludes with, “For there are three things that endure: Faith, Hope, Love. The greatest of these is Love.” In the risk of sounding extremely romantic, I am a firm believer in the notion that Love is not taken as seriously as it should be. In my dream world, every person would love one another and disagreements would be settled over a bowl of ice cream. But seriously, if people were willing to accept others and respect differences, imagine how different the world would be. I’m just saying if there were more Love in the world, I believe happiness would be more widespread. Who wouldn’t love to live in a world where happiness is out of control?!

If Love is the greatest of all, then I think I’m doing just fine and I couldn’t be happier. The icing on the cake? Spending the weekend with a best friend I love so very much!!!

Dinner for Deux

Buddhist leaders agree that people have become too focused on their daily engagements and too connected to every aspect of their lives. They refer to this condition as “time poor” because people are constantly overbooked and overworked, yet still agree to add even more commitments to their already packed schedules. Among the long list of downsides of a fast-paced lifestyle, one finding is more concerning than the rest: people are terrible at making time to unwind and chill out. One of the alarming results of always being on the go is that when people don’t have any activities planned, they are lost and don’t know what to do with their free time. One of the most important parts of human well-being is being able to take the time to pamper yourself on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, Americans, as an entire group, scored the worst on diagnostic tests that looked at time management skills. I think it’s important for us to understand that our well-being is largely affected by things other than our jobs, our schoolwork, and our material goods. One of the things that absolutely has an impact on our happiness is being able to make time for simple pleasures. As a college student, finding the time between studying for exams and writing research papers is difficult, but definitely rewarding.

On Monday, I decided to make a special dinner. It was a nice change of pace because it wasn’t anything extraordinary, but it was a home-cooked meal, made from the heart, shared with a special guy (and it didn’t taste that bad either). It was nice to take a few hours to prepare a few dishes because it allowed me to unwind after a hectic first day back. Cooking is a great hobby because first of all, it’s rewarding and secondly, it takes time to make the perfect dish. After baking a few pieces of chicken, throwing together a Caesar salad, and cooking spicy macaroni&cheese, dinner was served. After cooking, the best part comes: eating! We spent the meal talking: light talk, heavy talk, easy talk, awkward talk, funny talk, straight talk, clean talk, and dirty talk. The point wasn’t what kind of conversation was being held, but we were discussing and laughing and just talking about each other. Being able to share in comfortable conversation is a key feature of a healthy relationship, as well as laughing, singing, dancing, playing, and just having fun together! 

Taking the time to make this meal was rewarding in way more ways than just the wonderful food that we shared! I know it’s extremely important for everyone’s happiness to make the time on a regular basis to do things that make you happy. Challenge yourself to take a few minutes each day to do something for your own happiness!