Recycle & reuse: don’t waste the one life you’ve got.

Let’s face it: saving the planet is the hottest new thing these days. Green is the new black. (Unless you’re going to a Dior fashion show in NYC’s Meat-Packing District.) (Or a funeral.) (Plus, it doesn’t flatter my heart as well as black does.)

Anyhoodle.

In all seriousness (yes it’sa new word in my vocabulary), I’ve been in this deep, reflective mood lately (weird, I KNOW, tell me about it) and what inspired it? Nothing other than looking through pictures of the past three years of my life (complimented with tons of “omg, look at me!”s and “Omg, do you remember…”s and “Why in the hell did I post that on face book? My hair looks like Katrina’s sister just swept through it”s.) If The Courtney Show were a published chapter book out on the market, you’d most likely find them under The Best/Hardest/Most Emotional Years of my life. Don’t get me wrong, being a teenager has its advantages. You don’t have to worry about remembering to pick up anti-wrinkle cream on your to-do list while you’re running errands, for starters. Besides the couple [hundred] (give or take a few) boyfriends and boy friends you go through (speaking of recycle...), you don’t have any real commitment to anyone. That might’ve come out wrong, because when I find myself in a relationship, whether we’ve been together for three weeks or three months or three years, I don’t go out and kiss all the other fish in the sea. Ever. Commitment’s a big word in my vocabulary, and I’m beyond the world’s best girlfriend loyal and dedicated to my man, no exceptions. But there is no commitment up on the marriage level in high school, or at least not in my life.

(Seriously, don’t even get me started on those been-together-since-elementary-school-and-WILL-NOT-EXPERIMENT-WITH-OTHER-PEOPLE couples.)
(Don’t mind the capslock, I’m probably just secretly jealous.)

If love gets messy, you can run away. If doubt or confusion or hot tempers or “I want out”s sneak up on you, you can walk out. Just like that. I kinda like to think of it as a 24/7 personal-use escape route that’s not ever discussed but resorted to when worse comes to worse. When you’re married, you can’t really do that. You’re stuck for life (or so the contract says), and it’s not weddings are exactly free these days. If things get rough, it’s expected of you to actually work and work, and work and WORK at it to get through it and come out with a smile on (or at least civil behavior towards your spouse.)

Anyway. Getting to the point (or trying to)...

High school’s really not that tough. So why are hormones at their peak when it’s supposed to be the best years of our lives? It’s not fair if you ask me.

It’s so easy to waste your life, especially without realizing it. I mean a busy couple of months hit you and it’s school school school or work work work, and the play aspect of life kind of gets thrown on the back shelf where it gets dusty and forgotten about. You slowly start to lose sight of what life’s really about, and forget to make time for the good stuff in your day. Laughs are slowly died out, your favorite TV shows and quality time with your honey is pushed into first gear and becomes second priority, when, really, that’s what makes our lives so worthwhile.

(Even if it’s the simple stuff. It matters, too.)

It’s become one of my biggest fears to fall in the trap of wasting my life, of making it all work and no play, mostly because I AM a workaholic by nature. (Shopoholic once had a better ring to it, but that got pricey and apparently my parents and debt aren’t too good of friends.) I dedicate myself to something - enroll my ass in school, peptalk myself that I WILL get better grades than last year or “WSU will NOT accept you if you suck so much, Court” - and I run with it. Which, according to some people/studies, is a great trait to have. But when you forget to play and actually let loose and enjoy life, what’s great about that?

Don’t waste your life. Lucky for me, I learned this early on and at least see where I don’t wanna end up and that I DON’T wanna get stuck at the office opposed to out on the town with girlfriends/snuggled up on the couch with my favorite boy in the world, the dog The Boyfriend. Value your resources. Live a little. Laugh, get out, stop working so hard and live. Go green, just do it. You know you wanna.