Some Nice Lyrics

Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems,
Better put ‘em in quotations

Say what you need to say [x8]

Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you’d be better off instead,
If you could only . . .

Say what you need to say [x8]

Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You’d better know that in the end
Its better to say too much
Then never say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open

Say what you need to say [x24]

~John Mayer, Say

Planing is Overrated

Last weekend I was watching the movie My Life in Ruins with my sister. In one part of the movie, as Nia Vardalos’ character is complaining that she had her life all planned out but it just wouldn’t go according to plan, she is asked “how can you plan life?” I absolutely loved Nia Vardalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and I felt like both of these movies hit on that very theme. Life is something that you cannot plan, and yet we always try.

I, for instance, am a planner. I plan to take the necessary exams, get my teaching degree, assistant teach, and then go on to be a high school teacher. This, however, is only the beginning of my plans. I plan on going back to school, getting my masters and becoming a grade school principle only to go back to school again and get the necessary credentials to become a superintendent, or maybe a college professor. I have not yet decided which. As I sat watching this movie with my sister, it hit me just how ridiculous it is to plan your life.


Everyone always complains that children have the best lives in the world because they can do whatever they want. They have no problems. While this is not necessarily the case, I think I finally understand why many adults think this way. Children do not plan. They do not have to try and make their lives fit into a mold they have cast for them. They do what they do when they want to do it. They don’t stress about deadlines and degrees. They play, they sleep, they cause mayhem in our orderly lives, and we envy them for their ability to do so. When did it become unacceptable for adults to say they have no plans for their life? When did being open to whatever comes start to be a bad thing?

Essentially, this movie made me want to move to a foreign country. I know several people who have come to our country from different areas of the world, such as France and Nepal. They all notice the difference in our work hours. In these countries, work comes second to a personal life. In our country, people who put their personal lives first tend to be looked down upon. That is not to say that other countries do not expect people to have some idea of how their lives will turn out. Hollywood tends to overdramatize, and each country has its own expectations as far as plans go, but my point here is that life shouldn’t be so planned.

We are only given one opportunity to live. If everyone followed the mantra, “live like you will die tomorrow,” our world might very well fall apart. The economy needs workers, workers need jobs, and in order to have a job, you have to work . . . go figure. But imagine a world where you didn’t have to plan so much. Imagine a world where life just happened. It has been said that life happens when you are busy planning something else. Maybe we should give planning a break. In all of my planning, I have to admit, I have this secret hope that it won’t turn out like I planned. I hope I am pleasantly surprised all throughout life. I don’t want to know today where I will be by the time I am 80. I can plan it all I want, but why? What’s the fun in that?

This is not the first time I have thought about all of this. I tend to overanalyze and think about things a lot. This is simply another reminder for me to try and erase that need to plan everything from my personality and just let things happen as they will. You never know what life has in store for you.