With only half a semester left of college and the “last” of everything coming up, I’m doing my best to slowly cut my Milwaukee ties with grace and let my excitement for the future outshine my fear. At a time when my grip on my life’s direction is loosening, I’ve found that the little choices I am free to make have had major effects on my outlook. Here are my top five small changes that are
making a big difference:
1. Dancing without touching
By this, I do not mean leaving room for the Holy Ghost, but rather dancing like two able-minded humans instead of zoo animals. Friday night, I was at a Wicker Park bar with a modest dance floor and two DJs playing Bo Diddley and Tom Petty – hardly the place for a grind fest, but sure enough, there were a few flag-bearers. Two Cuban dance artists kept forcing themselves behind my girlfriends and me so aggressively that at one point, one of them grabbed my ponytail when I started to leave. Luckily, we broke free from the vultures and found solace next to some sophisticated guys whose moves didn’t include grating their belt buckles into our spines. Much more fun.
2. Watching the morning news
Months ago, my roommate and I decided to get rid of our TV, and by that I mean we let it sit in the corner of our living room for months without touching it after I somehow mangled the cable box cords into a terrifying mess. After killing time with books and filling dead air with music for a semester and a half, I started missing the Real Housewives and the Wonder Years. So this past weekend, I cleaned up my mess behind the television set and as the sun dawned in on my anxious Sunday all-nighter, I turned on the TODAY Show. Seeing the cast of The Artist interviewed — still wearing their tuxes and gowns from the Oscar after-parties — was an extraordinary reminder that the world was carrying on just fine elsewhere.
3. Mixing up the days
Saturday night, a friend and I saw “The Descendants” and planned to grab a beer across the street afterwards to see where the night took us. When we emerged from the theatre with mascara running down our cheeks, however, we decided it best to bag two lattes from Alterra and call it a night. The following Monday, we went to Caffrey’s for trivia, had a few beers too many and caught up with some friends we hadn’t seen. A little backwards, but it works, and as someone who’s prone to routines and a general Thursday-through-Saturday alcohol policy, it’s a fortifying remedy.
4. Buying without bias
Over the years, friends have noticed my preference for oversized sweatshirts, fuss-free jewelry and tall boots that allow for mismatched socks. A lack of style has indeed become my style. But when I went thrifting on Sunday, I bypassed the women’s clothes where I usually spend all my time and pawed through racks of men’s coats and sweaters. I ended up spending my grocery money on a worn letterman’s jacket that looks nothing like me, but that I love regardless.
5. Tuning into the radio
When at work, I usually try passing the time by listening to “Raspberry Beret” seven thousand times. Amazingly, my brain still works well enough to give me the recent idea of listening to live streams of my favorite radio shows. Chicago’s Lin Brehmer (93 WXRT) hosts a hilarious five-minute show every morning based on listener’s questions, and NPR’s Fresh Air offers different news themes every day. If it’s not clear by now, I’m a fan of monotony, and this needs to change before I graduate and every comfort is swept from under my feet. But for right now, something as simple as listening to songs I didn’t choose is about all the practice I can handle.
After spending four years in the same place, it’s easy to feel like everything has been seen, every hang-out has been exhausted and every day is just a task to be crossed off. In certain way, it’s true. I’m ready to pack up my stuff and conquer a new city — but not until I know I’ve savored every detail of college, whether on the dance floor or in my cubicle.