Last week was just one of those weeks. From beginning to end, I felt like there was someone out there with a bunch of pins and a little Katie doll sabotaging everything I did.
I had a research paper due Thursday, and I knew it was going to be a busy week, so I planned to look up everything I needed during the weekend. Naturally, that did not happen. Instead, I contracted the cold of the century and was trapped in my apartment all weekend.
Then it started to rain. And as any Charlottesville resident can tell you, there is no more unpleasant place to experience precipitation. Bundled up and armed with a backpack full of tissues, I looked like a combination of a cold medicine commercial and an L.L. Bean ad as I trudged across Grounds Monday.
By Tuesday, seemingly my life took a turn for the better. I made it to all my classes, and my head didn't feel like Wile E. Coyote had been dropping anvils on it anymore. But then Wednesday came.
The rain got worse that day, and I spent the greater part of the afternoon and evening in the silent dungeon of Clemons Library, desperately trying to throw my paper together. By midnight, I had made some serious progress, so I decided to reward myself by wrapping up the last page or so at home.
Just as I dumped my books in my room and prepared to start typing, the power went out. Everywhere nearby was blacked out, and I soon received numerous text messages telling me that returning to the library would be fruitless because the power was out on Grounds, too.
It was official - this was a plot. Clearly Dr. Evil was out there somewhere with his pinky to his lip and a nefarious plan to keep me from finishing my homework. Then, in my exasperation at all these hurtles, I figured out a way to thwart them.
I decided to start taking pleasure in finding the silver lining in the cloud. So the power went. That gave me a legitimate excuse to go to bed earlier and finish my paper in the morning. So I almost got knocked out by a falling tree branch as I walked to turn it in. Hey, it missed me, didn't it?
Looking back at my week through with this more optimistic point of view, events don't seem as bad. I even managed to find a few personal triumphs.
Even though my cold made me really thirsty and I kept forgetting to bring my water bottle to class, having to buy Gatorade all the time helped me crack some of the mysteries of New Cabell Hall. Until last week I was pretty sure that all the staircases and hallways in Cabell took you somewhere different each time, thus making it impossible to find the same bathroom or vending machine twice. In my quest for hydration though, I managed to find several pretty reliably placed drink machines and pass enough bathrooms to know that they mostly stay in the same general area - although I'm still convinced that the ones on the second floor migrate from time to time.
I would even say that being sick had an upside because now - knock on wood - I've already had whatever is going around and I don't have to worry about catching it during exam time.
Sometimes it seems like when it rains, it pours. But like real rain, you don't have to see the obstacles that life throws your way as all bad. In dealing with each new nuisance last week, I now realize life is always easier when you look on bright side.\n\nKatie's column runs every Tuesday. She can be reached at k.mcnally@cavalierdaily.com.
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