I put things off.
Not because I don’t have time, not even because I don’t want to do them. I just put things off.
Usually, they’re things like homework, practicing musical instruments, working out, doing laundry, cleaning things; the kinds of things you can get away with putting off for a while and either no one notices or you can do them as a last minute kind of thing and it doesn’t affect much except your workload, stress level, or the cuteness of the clothes you wear. But lately, I’ve been putting off two things that I actually needed to do: 1. Register my puppy’s microchip online in case he is ever lost, and 2. Contacting the beauty school I plan to attend for my second admissions interview. I actually stopped putting off both of these things today, and I feel pretty accomplished, I’m not gona lie.
Registering the microchip was no problem and took literally 3 minutes, and, since I keep both my pet’s paperwork together, I registered my cat’s microchip on the same website (damn thing cost $45, but it’s a lifetime membership, and hey if he runs away I’ll give myself a big pat on the back and buy myself a new dress!) Attempting to contact the admissions lady at beauty school was a whole other story though, and a good example of why I’m obviously an old lady in a 17 year old’s body.
The whole ordeal took me a grand total of about an hour and forty minutes from start to finish, and, let me just say, it is 100% because I’m not always that great with technology, especially the internet. I started off by getting my nice big folder of all the printed, hardcopy documentation I have from my first interview (yay, not digital stuff!), and got out the lady’s business card. It had a number I could call or an email address I could contact. Now, I am terrible at talking on the phone, like even worse than I am at talking to people in real life. I am, by nature, a very awkward person when I speak unscripted. I’m just naturally a good writer, and not so much when I talk to people. My friends are pretty used to it, when I get stuck trying to say a word, forget a word, say something painfully awkward, or just stop in the middle of a sentence because I realize I’ve stopped making sense, they just shake their heads and move on. But when I talk to a stranger, especially on the phone, and these kinds of things happen, it’s a lot harder to play off. That said, I decided I’d email her, but also because I prefer to have my communications with people documented anyways (who wishes people still used handwritten letters as a form of communication? This girl!)
But as I’m trying to email this poor, oblivious to my struggles woman, I decide that I should probably make a new email account so I don’t have to use “locoLyd” when I email important people about important things (ya know, like my future….) Well, Google may be my favorite search engine, but Yahoo is where my emails live. So I click over to Yahoo, create a classy new email address that was obviously not created in elementary school, and compose my email (this is where it gets frustrating). I go to send my finalized email, and low-and-behold my account has experienced “suspicious behavior” in the 10 minutes it has existed. This is one of those moments where you heave a heavy sigh, and curse technology for not doing what you expect it to do. Here I am, finally trying to take control of the future I’m terrified of, and, gosh darn-it, the internet is broken! I fiddle with it for 30-40 minutes, give up and do the microchip registering, then decide to come back and see if I can send my email this time!
I can’t. About an hour and a half later, after I’ve logged out, linked accounts, tried to make a third account, rebooted my laptop, and tried sending multiple versions probably 30 times, I finally give up and send it on my old “locoLyd” address just to get the darn thing sent. And guess what?! Sent on the first try.
I guess someone out there wanted me to start my future, with a little bit of my past (that’s a heart-warming thought, isn’t it?), teach me to put something off to February that I was supposed to do just after Thanksgiving (cosmic karma, anyone?). Well, in any case, my terrifying future has been officially set into motion and there’s no going back now but, as all my best friends keep telling me, just because I’m graduating and they aren’t (literally all my friends are a year younger than me) doesn’t mean they won’t stop loving me and supporting me and hanging out with me every chance we all get. Gosh, gotta love those losers, even though they’re so wonderful they make me want to cry sometimes……..
Be happy
Lydia Rose
Order_of_the_Bookworm 