Any Worse

That feeling when your stomach just vanishes. You can hear your heart pounding in your ears and feel the blood loss to all the extremities. You could be floating, but you can't; your mind is racing thoughts, and depending on how you cope with stress you may even begin to feel dizzy and see tiny stars. Remember that time when that happened? Wasn't it hilarious?

I swear to you, I'm not bragging, but my dad is the king of stories. As a child, every night my sister and I would beg him for his childhood stories. They were so entertaining, and they were coming from dad, our hero. Every night, he would oblige, dumbfounded that we would find the same story of last night still, if not more, entertaining than the night before. These stories often involved a baseball and a broken window, a dog biting a child, or somebody somewhere pooping their pants in public (those stories still get me every time). What child wouldn't want to hear a story like that?

I am in a current life situation, as you probably are too. To me, at this time it is not the least bit funny, entertaining, or even amusing. In fact, daily it is causing me great deals of stress, moments of panic, and feelings of dizziness. What gets me through the day? Knowing in my heart of hearts that one day, this is going to make a great story. My kids one day are going to beg and plead for me to tell this story over and over again, so much so that some day I will have to laugh. So, being in this predicament I began to instead try to cheer myself up with other traumatic times in my life that ended up being ok. Now that I actually think about them, I can do nothing by laugh at myself, at the scenarios, and chuckle at how God works all things...crazy as they may be...to His good. These are just the ones off the top of my head, all from recent years.

Scene One (August 2007)

Basically my face when I looked in the mirror.

Prepping for college, everything had to be just right. From the sheets, to the computer, to the posters that I would hang on my wall; so many details to take care of, save what I know was easiest for last. A day before the "big move" I went out with my mom to get my hair done. Being that college was a fresh start, my hair should obviously reflect my life, correct? New cut, sure. New color, why not? As often mom's do, talking ensued and there sat me in the chair, engulfed by the aroma of chemicals and humimng of fluorescent lights. Ding, time is up, and conversation still continues. Ding again, time is way up, but chatter presses on as I become distracted by a sparkle on the floor. Eventually the chemicals are washed out, and Kayla arises to find that her hair is in fact: purple. The color of Barney's outer shell, violets, and other non natural things.

Life couldn't get any worse.

Definitely panicked, but life continued...

Scene Two (August/September 2008)

So college started off a little special.  Why not take a fresh start on sophomore year? Now, this story actually deserves a longer explanation than I am currently able to give; perhaps one day (someone remind me).The basics go something like this...One of my pride and joys during my college career was my time spent in Residence Life. This involved many activities and training before school actually started. This involved playing tag, in which a collision happened and I ended up on the ground, no big deal. Two weeks later the emergency room tells me that my leg is fractured. That means that for the next two months my leg would be bound by plaster, and my armpits would endure freakish amounts of pain. To compensate, the school health clinic provided a motorized scooter for me to scoot my butt around campus for two months. Of course, to all my friends this translated as "free rides", and to the rest of campus, I was the chick taking up the entire sidewalk, bellowing through lost little freshman, blaring the horn that the scooter came equipped with. Life couldn't get any worse.

Definitely humiliating, but life continued...

Scene Three (December 2010)

Still involved with ResLife, myself and partner-in-crime Kate found ourselves in leadership positions. ResLife found itself with free samples of tampons, deodorants, and laundry detergent that they wanted distributed to all of the student body. Being leaders, we were in charge of the tampons (deodorants and detergent). Our mission: to relocate approximately 20 awkwardly sized boxes from the north side of campus to the south side of campus, with only the use of Kayla's car, and the brute strength that bulges from our biceps. We soon learned that the task was much greater than originally anticipated, and by the first round of transportation, all strength and energy was lost. Perseverance showed up, so to load round two we went. Now of course, these boxes couldn't just be unloaded, they also had to be transported about 50 yards in 23 degree weather. At one point boxes were dropped, limbs were aching, and in front of South Complex for all the world to hear, a bellowing cry of "Damn the tampons! Damn all of the tampons!" was exclaimed. Not to mention loads 4, 5 and 6 were completed whilst the ladies were down-and-out. Life couldn't get any worse.

Definitely frustrating, but life continued... 

Perhaps this sparks some other predicaments in your life that you now find amusing. I encourage you to share your own personal stories, and encourage you to find hope in the predicaments that you may currently find yourself in. Frustration, humiliation, panic? yes. But hear me when I say, your life will continue.