it's all the same grass

Today was day four in la la land, and tomorrow will make the 7th day of our second winter vacation. We had a short burst of mental stimulation from Wednesday to Friday, but then we were just too tired so now we have a whole week off! How nice.
But really it's just a set up for mental insanity. I can't take this lack of stimulation. I thrived on being overwhelmed; it was my norm. Being completely in over my head was what I did. Actually I have a perfect phrase for this: débordé de travail. It's French for overworked, but I think when you say it in French and fully understand it, it sounds a lot better.
Anyway, my brain, as have the brains of many other humans, has adapted to the fast-paced, visual, modernized, overly-technological world that always has someone preoccupied with a new activity. It has, in short, set us up for boredom.
And right now I am battling my own boredom.
At exactly 1:36pm today, I was on 11alive.com checking for school cancellations. I was sort of praying we didn't have school. I checked and all the counties around us had canceled. I kept refreshing the page until I saw Fulton County: Schools canceled tomorrow. I no longer felt the joy I felt on Monday when I heard Tuesday was canceled. My heart sank a little. I sighed and told my sister and my mom. They shared the same reaction. Actually, my sister just yelled "no school" down the stairs as if she had just one a tissue at a raffle.
Bottom line: get the plows down here, and get me to school!
I never thought I'd say it, but I want to go to school. I need to for my mental sanity. Thinking that I still have to go tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before Tuesday can roll around is really frustrating. I can't go anywhere, the roads are too dangerous. I can't sled anymore because the snow is now ice. I can't go outside to ride my bike, or even go to the grocery store. And I don't even know when my dad can fly in to the airport. It's closed too.
No food in the stores, no restaurants are opened, and the fun of snow days has vanished.
Everyone has heard the phrase "the grass is always greener on the other side". Sometimes the last clause is somewhat implied by just saying "the grass is always greener". But really, it's not. We all have the same grass. Sure, we might all like to have the fancy and exclusive zoysia, but sometimes bermuda grass isn't all that worse (I'm literally talking about grass now).
I thought that having a week of no school would be absolutely amazing. I could do anything I wanted! I wouldn't have to worry about school and I could stay up all night. But now, after a couple days of it, it's not as great as I hoped. I pretty much play on my fiddle, blog, use my iPad some more, email, watch reruns, and go online. And that gets old after a while.
So while I thought it would be great, and I complained about school and fantasized about how great everything would be if I stopped going, I was wrong. We always think the grass will be greener, but we never know what's over "the other side".
We all think that we would love to be celebrities, with their perfectly coiffed hair, their designer outfits, and their glamorous looks and lifestyle. But you don't know the other side of it. The press on your face every minute, your life in a bubble for scrutination (a neologism that I created), and who knows what else. We think we would love to go from drab to fab by stepping into the spotlight, but we really just have to accept ourselves, our lives, and our status.
And who can forget one of the best literary works of all time: Lord of the Flies. Boy (ha - it's funny because it's a book about boys), did they think it was great when none of the adult survived the plane crash. Paradise flooded their minds. Alone on an island with no rules. What could go wrong? Evidently, everything (ooh, nice assonance. I can commend myself on good annotations). They miss their parents, and they wish they had some sort of rule system. Just like before when they complained about that lifestyle.
It's easy to think that another life is better than yours because you only see the perks of that life. We only see the glam of Hollywood (well, we're only supposed to see the glam). When you think of snow days, you think of the snow and the fun. But what about the ice - the roads, the danger, the closing of not only school but businesses? It stops all of our lives.
It's important to appreciate your life for what it is. Even if you aren't happy with it. If you are not in war, poverty, danger, poor health, or starvation, you are probably in the top 5% in the world, at least. So when I'm in school, I shouldn't be thinking about how great it would be if we had a snow day. And ironically, when we have a week of snow days, I shouldn't be thinking about how awful it is. I should find the happiness in each. When I am in school, I can think of how good it is that I can get an education when many people can't. Plus, I get to see all my friends and my teachers. I get to learn cool things. When I have snow days, I can do what I want to, but I can also connect with people I don't see all the time, like my cousins and my best friend, who both live far away.
Make the most of your time even if you don't love every moment. And don't be envious of the lives of others, when you might not know how hard they have it, or how much they may envy you. The grass isn't always greener; often it's not. It's all the same grass.