Worry

While I'm on a quote kick,

"Worrying won't stop the bad stuff from happening. It just stops you from enjoying the good." -Unknown

When I saw this (on pinterest, duh), I kind of giggled a little bit.

To say I am a worry wart would be like saying the ocean contains a few gallons of water. It's a little bit of an understatement.

My best friend would attest to this because he is the one that hears about it. It's basically a weekly conversation.

He always tells me I don't need to worry about whatever it is I am worrying about, and he's absolutely right.

What does worry do? Really, what does it do? Does worry make a paper grade better, make me more prepared for a test, magically have a money tree, or let me know that I will be a fantastic school counselor? No, of course not! What worry does do is suck time away. Sucks away time I could be spending editing, studying, working, or preparing myself. It drains any joy I might have had.

In spanish, the word for "worried" is "preocupado" as in preoccupied. Huh. I remember being really struck by that when I was in spanish in high school. In fact, that word is one of the few words I remember from spanish.

If I am choosing to worry, I am preoccupied.

Mirriam-Webster's dictionary defines preoccupied as:
"lost in thought, also : absorbed in some preoccupation" (which is defined as, "extreme or excessive concern with something")

Huh.

I don't want to live a life spent in preoccupation. To be concerned with things I either (a) cannot change or (b) could actively change if I wasn't so busy worrying about them. I don't want to let myself suck the joy out of the good things in life because I am choosing worry, preoccupation, over actually living life.