$5 Surgery

The other day I gave my little sister $5 with absolutely no intention of reminding her that she said she'd pay me back. It was really great. Unfortunately in the ever tight-budget college years when every dollar and quarter was precious, life was nearly all dollar for dollar. Money was one of those issues that could easily turn sour. Someone forgetting about that tank of gas they owed you easily became a sore spot by the end of the semester. And now, when my job prospects have fallen though and I once again hang in limbo as the time to begin repaying my mountain of debt grows ever closer, for some reason money is both more and less important than it used to be. It feels good to give some money away and not worry about getting it back.

10 Mg

It is a wonder to me what 10 milligrams can do for a person, for a family. In an age where we are more and more encouraged to return to nature and to shun the evils of modern medicine, I find myself being reminded of all the good that scientific research has done. Now, I will be among the first to say let's take the responsibility of changing our diets and our life-styles before popping a pill. However, I think that we, I, sometimes come very close to rejecting the good because of idealistic dreams and pursuits of the better. When I am able to get through the day without making 20 mad-dashes to the bathroom, hoping I'll get to the tissue before an impending sneeze explodes all over me, is that such a bad thing? What a wonderful difference in my life from just a daily allergy medicine, from 10 mg of Loratadine. Take the weight of a paperclip, divide that into a thousand pieces, and then take just ten of those. Only 10 mg. And, because someone I love is now taking 10 mg of Prozac, I am suddenly able to have a relationship I wasn't sure was possible. It's wonderful.

I am reminded of the high horse I too often ride upon. What else could be so much better with just a little more than there is now?

A New-found Appreciation

I am working on my Teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) class right now and for one excercise I have to come up with definitions/examples of words. Right now I'm working on the word 'library', thinking of different ways to describe it in simple terms. One such way was to say that most towns have a library. Then I started to think about where I live. Thankfully there is a small library here in my town, however, I have been coming to the realization that, aside from the school, it is the only library in my county. Granted, there are only about 5000 people living year-round in this county, but it makes me grateful that I live less than ten minutes away, while others have to travel more than an hour.