Looney Tunes failed me
By CARMEL RAVIV — craviv@ucdavis.edu
As a kid, I was always wary of wet sand because I was convinced it would be quicksand. I thought that stepping in it would cause me to start slowly descending into a suffocating death. The worst part about a quicksand death, I thought, would be the waiting. I hate waiting. I would probably tell the sand to hurry up and kill me already. Wet sand wasn’t the only thing I was cautious of — I was also always on the lookout for skunks, because if one of them sprayed me, I would have to take a tomato sauce bath, and I hate tomatoes.
But then I grew up and realized — just because I saw it on Looney Tunes doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. Likewise, just because my middle school teacher told me to get my act together, because lollygagging isn’t tolerated in high school, doesn’t mean it’s true.
Because then you get my economics teacher. The kind of teacher who talks way too much about his divorce and leaves the classroom during a test to get Starbucks (I hate you Mr. Klark). I ended up learning more about economics from the vending machine and rationing supply from “Clash of Clans.”
Turns out, high school wasn’t as serious as I made it out to be. While some teachers weren’t ideal, they also weren’t Ms. Trunchbull; they didn’t chuck me across the yard if I turned in homework late. I look back now and really wish I didn’t stress out about high school so much.
Even so, I still catch myself feeding those same worries in college. Every time I register for classes, I look at the packed schedule, less-than-ideal discussion times and low “Rate My Professor” score that are all ensuring I’ll have a stressful and inconvenient quarter.
But then the quarter starts, and it turns out that it’s okay to miss a lecture here and there. And then there’s a friend from my dorm building in my class, so I have someone to mess around with, making the time go by. To top it off, the professor that has gotten hexes put on their first-born child in the “Rate My Professor” reviews isn’t even all that bad. There’s no point in getting anxious and apprehensive about what’s to come, because once it does, you’ll deal with it head-on and realize you’re more capable than you thought.
It’s easy to make things a bigger deal than they actually are. It’s easy to spend your entire life afraid of quicksand or talking to your crush or doing something you’ve never done before.
It’s important to realize that some things will only bother you as much as you let them. Though there will always be some things you can’t control, you can redirect your energy toward the things that you can control — the things that have value. Let things happen as they happen and trust yourself that you’ll make it work.
So next time you see some wet sand, jump in it, because it won’t kill you. You’re not likely to encounter a skunk anyways, so go ahead and avoid tomato sauce if you really hate it. Life is too short to make everything a big deal.
Written by: Carmel Raviv — craviv@ucdavis.edu
Disclaimer: (This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and the names of “sources” are fictionalized.)
