Faceplanting...

Yesterday I fell off my bike.

I was riding to an interview at Victoria's Secret, I was in riding through the university next to my apartment, I took a sharp turn around a corner, hit a curb and faceplanted into the grass.

Faceplanted.

There's a lot of things you think about when you fall. For example, some of the first things I thought about were:

Did anyone see me?

What if I end up on failblog?

And, Did I get a grass stain on my interview clothes?

You see, I saw the crash coming, I had almost enough time to plan out my landing (almost). So when I sat up I pretty much called myself a retard and checked to see if anyone had seen.

Yes, of course someone had seen.

But he wasn't thinking about all the things that I thought about. He was worried about things like catching me on tape or if I had stained my clothes. Nope. He asked if I was alright and then said:

"Well. At least you landed on grass."

How insightful of you random CSUN student.

How many times have you fell (metaphorically and physically) and thought "well, at least I fell on grass?"

I rode through that parking lot on my way back from the interview and I realized that I landed on one of the only grassy spots in that area. If I had turned earlier I would have beefed it on pavement, bark, or gravel. But, I fell in the grass.

So this got me to thinking. There are three ways you can react from falling (metaphorically and physically): 1, you pretend like it didn't happen and move on, 2, you think about all the things that could have happened, or 3, you think about how lucky you were to have fallen the way you did.

Why is it that most of us choose the first one every time?

Why do we have to wait for our parents, or friends, or doctors, or random CSUN students to tell us that we were lucky and that a million other things could have happened?

After the CSUN student walked by, I realized a slight throbbing in my right arm... Probably because when people fall our first reaction is to throw out our hands. So I got to thinking. What were the worst things that could happen?

I could have broken my arm...

I could have hit pavement and busted open my head (I wasn't wearing a helmet)...

I could have done this, I could have done that...

But. I fell on grass. And now, instead of being hurt badly, I'm just really sore.

So. I've been thinking. This incident is a lot like everyday life.

Think about all the hard things you have gone through in your life and landed on grass at the end. I've gone through many emotional trials in my life, but when I think back... I can honestly say I've landed on grass every time. Sure, at the time if feels like your scraping against pavement, but when it's all passed and you look back and think: I got through that... Or, I landed on grass.

What if we had that mentality evertime something went horribly ary in our lives?

We fight with a friend, we fight with a family member, school's hard, life's hard, can't get a date, fighting with a boyfriend, etc.

What if, through all that stress, we stopped and thought: I'm going to land on grass.

I know. This is a common tool for stress addicts like me. When you freak out and have a panic attack, you're supposed to tell yourself that it will be alright. That everything will be alright.

But I have a hypothesis.

Think back to the one time that you had a bad fall (physically) and ended up alright. Did you land on grass? Carpet? A matress? A bush?

Then. Whenever you are having a hard time in life you can think back to that moment, when everything was alright. When you landed on, whatever you landed on.

I think maybe, it will help get us on our feet a little quicker, because it was a real-life event where you walked away just fine, embarrassed, but fine. It's alot easier to look back at that then to tell yourself you will be "alright" but you have no example of what "alright" really is.

That's just what I think though.

I hope that one day, when I'm freaking out, I can tell myself: "Don't worry you'll land on the grass" and actually calm down. Think about the people that are there for me, waiting to help me up from my not-so-terrible fall, think about how they love me, and how I'm lucky. Not because a god allowed me to be so, but because I worked hard and found the right people to place in my life, and that those people organically love me and would not let me go.

Just a simple thought.

- Berlyn

P.S. Sorry it's short and a bit of a ramble. I was debating on wether or not I wanted to write one this week because I am tired, bent out of shape (literally, I hurt everywhere), and preoccupied. Axl's coming home for a short while and he's driving in tonight. So... I'd much rather be busying myself with getting the place looking nice for his arrival. Also, I've been writing for the past five days and I'm a little fed up. I just want to watch some televison and sleep frankly.

Next time I will have a much better topic and it will be longer...