Every so often I miss being a freshman. Just for a second, and just parts of it. Just the doing the craziest things and not thinking anything of responsibility parts. The realizations that come day to day of recognizing I'm an adult aren't usually happy ones, unfortunately. Of course, those realizations do always come when I realize the consequences- financially, socially, spiritually, timing, etc.- of an action almost as instantly as I think about the action itself, and the result is the conclusion that these actions are often spontaneous, somewhat reckless things.
I have a fantastic group of friends that I met my freshman year, and they all encouraged this sort of decision making. Fortunately, we all had the good sense not to do anything incredibly stupid or with lasting negative consequences, but we still had a great time doing whatever it was. I guess it's fair to say that spontaneity and bad judgment don't always guarantee a good time... but still. We learned a lot from each other then, and now that they are all home from missions, we continue to learn a lot from each other. It just takes on a whole different meaning now that every one of us is at the stage of "what's next in my life?" Interesting how that occasionally influences our view of "responsibility." Who knew.
So when we all had a plan to visit one of these friends' aunts on a Friday night, and at the last minute that plan fell through, we still had every intention of doing something fun, but what to do? A movie, everyone was tired. Sometimes that change in perspective has made our idea of fun a lot more complex- we can't do something like just watch a movie without thinking we're boring, the activity can't be completely wasting time, it has to show some sort of planning on our part... I don't know what it is. Lately we're not quite as spontaneous. So when Jordan called me tonight and said, "We're on our way home. We're going to the Hot Pots. Right now. You coming?" I was a little bit frustrated. Leave it to them to be spontaneous when I actually tried making plans, they weren't working out, and I was determined to make those plans work. I love impulsive, especially when coming from people who aren't characteristically so. Hot Pots had been my idea in the first place, and I was so mad they would even consider going without me! I told him that I couldn't take the joke from him. I had plans. What was I supposed to do? The phone switched hands. James started, "Alyssa, this is my serious voice." ...James seems the most rational of all of us. When is he not using his serious voice? "We're driving home, and we want to go to the Hot Pots as soon as we get there. I'm being impulsive, and I don't do impulsive. You should take advantage of this." "Ahhh..." I called and rescheduled the not-working-out-so-hot plans for another day that they'd work better. And we were driving to Monroe. 2 1/2 hours away. So we could go hot tubbing in the middle of nowhere. And I could feed that urge to be impulsive I've been feeling for weeks.
This idea came about 8PM. On a Saturday night. So what actually happened? The guys dropped me off to grab my swimsuit, they came back to pick me up. We went back to their apartment. They turned on Miss Congeniality. We went to Wendy's at 11:30. We sat in one of the BYU parking lots and ate french fries. We talked about Lady Gaga, how Andy actually knew who she was when Poker Face started playing on the radio, about Saltare on America's Best Dance Crew, about how even though Gabe judges me for having "Telephone" as my ringtone, he still thinks she's pretty talented, and they dropped me off before midnight. And I had a great night. I came away thinking I have the greatest friends in the world, and not just those I spent time with tonight. Clearly, our definition of fun isn't that complex.
Again I'm reminded, with a grin, that being an adult doesn't mean less fun. Just flexible definitions. And a greater demand for creativity.
Hot Pots story next weekend?
I have a fantastic group of friends that I met my freshman year, and they all encouraged this sort of decision making. Fortunately, we all had the good sense not to do anything incredibly stupid or with lasting negative consequences, but we still had a great time doing whatever it was. I guess it's fair to say that spontaneity and bad judgment don't always guarantee a good time... but still. We learned a lot from each other then, and now that they are all home from missions, we continue to learn a lot from each other. It just takes on a whole different meaning now that every one of us is at the stage of "what's next in my life?" Interesting how that occasionally influences our view of "responsibility." Who knew.
So when we all had a plan to visit one of these friends' aunts on a Friday night, and at the last minute that plan fell through, we still had every intention of doing something fun, but what to do? A movie, everyone was tired. Sometimes that change in perspective has made our idea of fun a lot more complex- we can't do something like just watch a movie without thinking we're boring, the activity can't be completely wasting time, it has to show some sort of planning on our part... I don't know what it is. Lately we're not quite as spontaneous. So when Jordan called me tonight and said, "We're on our way home. We're going to the Hot Pots. Right now. You coming?" I was a little bit frustrated. Leave it to them to be spontaneous when I actually tried making plans, they weren't working out, and I was determined to make those plans work. I love impulsive, especially when coming from people who aren't characteristically so. Hot Pots had been my idea in the first place, and I was so mad they would even consider going without me! I told him that I couldn't take the joke from him. I had plans. What was I supposed to do? The phone switched hands. James started, "Alyssa, this is my serious voice." ...James seems the most rational of all of us. When is he not using his serious voice? "We're driving home, and we want to go to the Hot Pots as soon as we get there. I'm being impulsive, and I don't do impulsive. You should take advantage of this." "Ahhh..." I called and rescheduled the not-working-out-so-hot plans for another day that they'd work better. And we were driving to Monroe. 2 1/2 hours away. So we could go hot tubbing in the middle of nowhere. And I could feed that urge to be impulsive I've been feeling for weeks.
This idea came about 8PM. On a Saturday night. So what actually happened? The guys dropped me off to grab my swimsuit, they came back to pick me up. We went back to their apartment. They turned on Miss Congeniality. We went to Wendy's at 11:30. We sat in one of the BYU parking lots and ate french fries. We talked about Lady Gaga, how Andy actually knew who she was when Poker Face started playing on the radio, about Saltare on America's Best Dance Crew, about how even though Gabe judges me for having "Telephone" as my ringtone, he still thinks she's pretty talented, and they dropped me off before midnight. And I had a great night. I came away thinking I have the greatest friends in the world, and not just those I spent time with tonight. Clearly, our definition of fun isn't that complex.
Again I'm reminded, with a grin, that being an adult doesn't mean less fun. Just flexible definitions. And a greater demand for creativity.
Hot Pots story next weekend?
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