In Greek mythology, the gods control the lives of the pathetic, puny humans and determine what will occur in their life journeys. Over the course of the past couple days, I felt like the person the gods decided to pick on to throw obstacle after obstacle at for their own enjoyment. It seemed like every tiny thing went wrong, and as unlucky event after unlucky event piled up, I began to think nothing could cheer me up. I kept on enduring, however. I thought that the last straw was when my train got stuck for over an hour. Nope, I made it through that with at least a tiny shred of sanity with a little help from Ed Sheeran. His song "Who You Are" is hardly a famous one, but the truth in the beautifully simple lyrics speaks volumes. I felt like crying and then Ed sang through my headphones, saying "it's okay not to be okay." Amen, brother! Sometimes we feel like we constantly have to act like everything's fine when in reality, it's okay not to.
Next, I thought my breaking point would be when I finally arrived in my hometown and got on the wrong bus at midnight. It ended up dropping me off miles away from my apartment and much farther than my starting point. Yes, I came close to losing every shred of sanity, but I stayed slightly calm. However, it seemed like nothing could lift my spirits. I had fallen into a deep chasm of distress. I had become a shell of a person; an empty sac of skin void of any inner humanity like those in the creepy Scarlett Johansson movie Under The Skin.
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| Me |
I was wrong. I forgot that the Backstreet Boys exist. At my most recent staff meeting, another Assistant Language Teacher mentioned that the song "I Want It That Way" is a great tool for teaching English. This comment blew over me at the moment, but came back to the forefront of my mind later when I was thinking of which song to learn next for my students. It made me reminisce about how much I used to love the good ol' 90's boy band, and reflect on the rift it caused between me and my friends who chose to love N*SYNC instead. I decided to give them a listen for old time's sake and instantly felt the stress from within me dissipate.
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| Mmm, soul music |
Every word in "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" tugged at my heartstrings just as it always did in the past, and the beat in "Larger Than Life" got me nodding my head in time and walking with a spring in my step. I probably looked like a moron dancing my way down the street and I'm sure my neighbour could hear me belting out Backstreet Boys lyrics through the walls, but I simply don't care. Just like it's okay not to be okay, it's okay to be so much better than okay, too, and tonight, I finally was. I guess the Greek gods decided to pick on someone else for a change.
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