Oh My Bob

Yesterday was crazy fantastic on sooooo many levels.

Level 1. I met new friends. I didn't make them. I found them :)

Level 2. I went to the beach ya'lllll! Rio del Mar. It was hot. I stood on the shore and let the waves wash over my legs. I got sand in my hair. I sat on a towel and talked with my homies. There were about 300 people there. We had epic games. I was in a human pyramid that collapsed several times. We played a new, hip, epic version of ring-around-the-rossie. A guy came buy asking if we were artists and when he found my friends and I were he said he wanted to see our work so he could put is in an art show in December at the Civic Center. It was fantastical!!!!

Well I guess those were all the levels...

Then I woke up this morning. The "Roller Coaster Theorem" had taken full-effect.

I invented the concept of the Roller Coaster Theorem when I was 17. At that point I had just had a great day followed by the worst night ever. I believe it was around the time I saw Green Day in concert. I had lost an eye contact that week and was seeing sort of well just using the other one. It was an interesting combination of I can see clearly/ what is that? I decided after the concert that it had been one of the greatest months of my life -not just because of my experience seeing GD, but also because I had had a great couple weeks hanging out with friends. I was in the happy. Then life kicked me in the gut and handed me a heaping pile of family drama, tension, and conflict.

I was then that I realized, life is balanced. A lot of people go out of their way to find balance in their own individual lives, but life itself Is Balanced. There will always be that even teeter-totter effect.

For every Luke Skywalker there will always be a Darth Vader and for every Martin Luther King Jr. there will always be a Hitler.

For every reasonably kind person who does nice things every oce in a while, there will be a jerk who does messed up thins every once in a while.

 For every meadow or sparkling lake their will be a garbage dump.

For every starving child their will be one living in a mansion crying because their rich parents haven't gotten them the 1,000th toy they want add to their collection of 1 zillion.

For every warm summer and fall their will be a cold winter and spring.

For every ice age their will be a melting age.

This is the way life works. And so it is in our own lives. Yesterday was awesome. Today I'm suffering from severe sun burns and I'm struggling to walk around the house.

Most of the weeks past have been normal -wax and wane with not much action. February I got my ass handed to me in an argument that fragmented my realtionship with a relative I now go out of my way to avoid. But I also got my first apartment.

I was silent, shy, and suffered from low-self esteem all due to a mixture of things, but mostly Social Anxiety Disorder. I missed out on life and what I did get to experience was mostly miserable. No I'm on medication and I have more friends, I can speak easily, I feel alive, and I have discovered who I am and who I want to become.

The Roller Coaster Theorem. For every up, there is a down. Childhood was awesome, Teenage years sucked, Early 20s is rocking.

What I take from it is this: When you are up, always appreciate it. It has come to you for a reason -either because of bad that has happened before or bad that is headed your way. We need the happy to make it throuhg the sad. And when your in those moments of hopeless loss, always remember it is the Price That Must Be Paid for the good to keep life in balanced. This sun burn and the pain I'm feeling was totally worth yesterday.

For every down, there is an up.