It's High Time (300th Post)

*This is the 300th blog post. Thanks to all those who read "the Youthful Life: Goes College" - I greatly appreciate it. Giving advice with my own brand of humor and sharing stories of my ridiculous teenage life has been an amazing time. Continue to read up, and I'll keep writing. Yours truly, Joey O.

Being a teenager is all about working hard and having time for fun as well. I'll be the first to admit that I really do not do much of that second part. With all the classes, homework, reading (does that count as homework) and club obligliations I have, I just don't have time other than sleeping or eating to relax. Is that a problem, uhm, hell yeah. All work and no play makes Joey a mess for the entire day. Get ready for how to destress, have some genuine fun during the school week and sweat it on out. It's high time we let loose a little.


There are so many things I do that not only bring me stress like Annie's "90210" season 1 freak out moment at being called a nark, but also kind of relax me. My campus TV show for pop culture "Dirty Pop!" (check out the latest episode here "Spring Fever") does take some effort/work but really pays off to just hang out with the cast and crew in the studio. Studio time is my break from real life when I venture off into the world known as TV Land (not the channel for throwback shows, I'm not a Golden Girl). Planning event for my hall council can be a lot to do, but truthfully I freaking love planning things because getting to make some perfect and allowing people to have a good time truly makes me happy. I'm just like really good at life, NBD. But when those things don't get me out of a weekday slump, I know it's high time to try something new. The biggest problem I've found with my collegiate life is that it's too monotone like Ben Stein's (the Clear Eyes guy) voice and I legitimately live by my phone's calendar and agenda. I'm not Mark Feuerstein as Dr. Lawson from Royal Pains just yet, I'm not even a twenty-something, and life is already dictated by a friendly mobile device. I don't think so. Wednesday night I had enough. I walked on the wild side and had chili macaroni & cheese for a late din-din and from there texted up homeboy Jimbo to play some tennis. I get all dressed in white looking like Jon-Michael Gambill about to take the court at the US Open and we head over to the gym. We navigate the maze of hallways and come across the only 3 tennis courts on campus (there's like 12K students here, and really only 3 tennis courts, WTEff) where there's at least 12 people already scrunched on half courts hitting back and forth. We look around and realize like everyone might have been a junior professional champion or something. Girlies hitting the racquet so hard Maria Sharapova might actually cringe and take a Cannon Powershot photo and guys dominating those forehands like Pete Sampras. Whatever, some nice guys give us their half of the court and everyone else groups together to play rallying games. We're just lowly freshmen looking a mess and hitting the ball all over. Whatever, I'm sweating my clothes out (which I never do, it's gross) and having a good time, for once. After about 45 minutes of being totally out of place, we're about to leave when the James Blake look-a-like (dreads, and barefeet in all) and his excited partner ask us to play doubles. Aw hell, stuff's about to go down. Let's just that I looked ridiculous out there. I was all over the place, forgetting to switch and during our best rally was almost hit in the face by the line of fire. It was highly embarrassing like Kim Kardashian getting flour bombed (not the Lotus flower bomb, an actual bag of bread making flour). But it was so much fun and my love for tennis grows stronger every time I play. It's high time we high tail it out of there.


Athletics are one of those things that bring out a different side of everyone. I hope you all know I'm not very sporty at all, I'm a less physical kind of guy. For competition I prefer video games, board games and what not, but when it's a competition you know I go hard in the park. It's like I pull a Ty-Ty (Hansbrough) and have the urge to throw elbows in everyone's faces. I'm already a sweaty mess, and not the good kind, so after tennis I'm like whatever, this is a once in a semester oppurtunity so I might as well play basketball while I'm already dressed. Alejandro, Sam and I take to the courts outside and it's just after 11pm. Playing basketball outside with the starry sky, the crisp breeze, and the fuzzy white lights was interesting to say the least. You know all of us probably play dirty, and somehow it became those two against me. The no look passes, incessant shouting, and the foul calls made us the spectacle for the night. I don't like to lose, like ever and anything that is any way, shape or form similar to a competition will be taken, by me, as that, a competition. We were playing basketball which included airballs, hook shots, pushing, sick-nasty blocks, and some draino-max 3 pointers (BTW, those commercials for all that unclogging stuff are way too suggestive for anyone's good) . Truthfully, I don't really care that much aboutw winning (okay, that's a blatant lie) but I'm perfectly content with just focusing on having fun, and being in the moment. For like an hour nothing else matters and all the stress that I currently endure is lifted off my shoulders like the big reveal in the classic Scooby Doo mysteries. I had a great time just goofing around, playing YOLO instead of HORSE/PIG and just being loud and weird. The bros from the Heights make an appearance and that's when we know it's our cue to peace out. It's high time we get the heck out of there and stop making a scene.


Taking time to make sure you're okay is highly important. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to tell myself, "You're alright, you're okay, and you can do this" and a destresser is the best way to solidify that. Thursday morning I decided to take a walk on the wild side and eat something different for breakfast. Sam and I hop on the bus and ride from the Heights to central where the rows of street vendors are out in full force. It was to Burlington's own "Skinny Pancake" for the "Pooh Bear" crepe with honey, cinnamon sugar and powdered sugar on top. It was like a glistening mass of everything that is right with the world. Good gosh, it was some of the sweetest mornings I've had all semester that's for sure. We sat by the theatre and people watched/judged (and you know that cheers me up, and I love making fun of people, including myself). I did some homework and kind of lounged around before getting the gang together for refreshments at the Marché on the way to chemistry lecture. That class literally sucks the life out of you like an Edward Cullen style sparkly vampire, and tons of people were zonked out. However, it's the best class to people watch and I spent most of my time determining whether or not gAlexy is worth pursuing (let's explain the nickname. Girl's name is Alex, she's Gorgeous, and y makes it similar to galaxy and inconspicuous) and the hilarity that is UFM (Ultimate Frisbee Mate) who almost ritually does something quirky or funny during that class. I have honors college plenary right after and it's debate season. The topic this week was the abolition of the Greek system (which was awkward since I'm apart of it) - and it got intense fast. Afterwards to wind it all down, Jimbo, Jay-Dubs (Westside Jake), Sammy, Jandro, and I had a water balloon fight. NBD, just 200 water balloons used to wage war at like 7pm on a  Thursday evening. People stopped to watch but it was so much fun. Just letting out your aggressions and soaking your friends. We plan on doing a bigger one in the next week or so. I'm telling you it's high time you stop worrying so much and take a break.



Being a teenager is about keeping yourself together even when you're on the verge of falling apart. Don't ever let them see you sweat, and I take that literally (sweating is foul as hell). You can do this whole college thing, if I can make it, then so can you for sure. Take time out of your busy days to make sure that you are good, sane, and relaxed. When you loose yourself in all the work and the extra, you're doing too much. Slow your roll, pump the brakes, and put it in reverse. It's high time you learned to take a load off.



My blog post question for the day is ... how do you destress? I'm all about my TV watching, and my therapeutic blogging methods (yeah these posts are not only for all of you who need advice, but for me too).

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