XXXIV. The Narrow Way

AMES, Iowa — Days like today just make me want to crawl under a rock and never come out.

Chug-a-luggin’ along with the grind of everyday life, some things just become too overwhelming and too upsetting to be able to handle in the heat of the moment. Today I’ve made three phone calls to sources for a story — one was incredibly rude and didn’t say anything quotable, another declined to be interviewed all together. So now I have one quoted source and another paraphrased source for a story that should have been written days ago. Great.

On top of that, trying to keep up with the breaking news of a big announcement is darn-near impossible considering we don’t have the resources that big-time publications have, so even our own staff members are re-tweeting links to other publications. Again, frustrating.

Trying to finish a story, keeping up with another one and making sure other breaking stories are covered (there have been multiple today, unfortunately) is enough to make me want to yell at the top of my lungs. That, on top of dealing with the day-to-day anxieties that I’ve been battling for the past few months isn’t making things any easier for me.

I can’t get too bent out of shape, though, especially since there will always be days like this where things just don’t go the way I want them to. Bad days are a part of life and the sooner you learn to deal with them, the less of an impact they have on your wellbeing.

The day isn’t over, so I’ll try to stay as composed as possible.

It’s going to be tough, though.

-Calhoun 5/3/2012

XXXIII. Biding My Time

AMES, Iowa — Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve updated this thing.

Rest assured, I haven’t been abducted or killed or anything of the like, I’ve just been really busy. In fact, I was actually studying for finals when I decided to take a break and write this blog post.

A lot has changed since I’ve started this blog, yet everything has stayed exactly the same. It’s a paradox I’ve become more accepting of as time has passed, learning to take things in stride rather than getting all wound up about something and then getting upset as a result.

I’ve got a lot to look forward to in the coming years — being named the sports editor of the Iowa State Daily, returning to Carroll to intern at the newspaper there, etc. — so I won’t be blogging as much as I used to. I originally started this blog as something to do when I would get bored, but now that I have so much going on, blog posts will be scarce.

But who knows, maybe one day I’ll finally think of something interesting to write about.

-Calhoun 4/28/2012

XXXII. The Lunatic is on the Grass

AMES, Iowa — I’m losing my mind.

I know I say this a lot in an attempt to somehow sum up all that’s going through my head with an inability to do so, but I am really losing my mind.

Maybe it’s all those years of being nice to people — bending to their every whim with the hopes that they’d do the same for me and being thoroughly disappointed when finding otherwise — that has me over the edge, maybe I’m the victim of having too high of hopes or expectations that aren’t easily met on a regular basis, maybe I’m overreacting as I normally do and I’ll get over it eventually.

Regardless, I need to get away. I need to get away from everyone and everything so I can get my life together.

Otherwise, I’ll never find my mind that I’ve apparently lost.

-Calhoun 3/4/2012