Chance

Today, I explored a store called Home & Planet I've passed dozens of times right off of Lehigh's campus but never entered. It is an eco-friendly, artsy-but-practical store that sells pretty much everything, all made from recycled materials. I thought it was be a typical hipster store with the obvious handbags and crafted jewelry and stuff, but I was proven wrong. Everything seemed to be pretty high quality and came with an interesting back story. A few pieces of furniture caught my eye when I walked in, and turns out material from the historic Bethlehem Steel Mill just down the road from Lehigh contributed to those pieces. I love Bethlehem's history, so I happily wasted some time learning about other pieces from the friendly owner, who seemed almost as interesting as his products.

This quick adventure made my day, which followed a nearly sleepless night due to a heavy workload, which followed an episode of food poisoning the previous day. Needless to say I was stressed and in an all around bad mood. But my mood has very much turned around and I attribute this to my enjoyable visit to Home & Planet, which was made possible by one of the assignments weighing down on my mind a little. Maybe it was the art I look at, the conversation I had or that the place seemed like something my mom would like. Not exactly sure what cheered me up, but it worked!

I'll get to my point now. I did nothing to get myself out of my funk, but it happened, just like it always does. This type of pick-me-up is something I usually forget about, and you probably do, too. Sure I'll have a bad day or even week, but something ALWAYS turns it around. And this something just falls into my lap more often than I realize. I've mentioned talking to a friend or watching a funny show in previous posts, but maybe you should just let your mood run its course and not stress about being stressed. The type of daily stress I'm trying to address with these posts doesn't last forever, even if it feels like it might. Things around you change, so your mood is going to change.

So expect the unexpected stress reliever that's not even in your control, and look forward to it!