Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Slice of Life #13 - Pulling Weeds and Relieving Stress

March 13th, 2013

Today was one of the rare days where I actually had time to go outside, exercise (aka take a short walk) and do other miscellaneous things. It felt really nice to enjoy fresh air, after breathing stale air in a school or house 24/7. However, after my walk, I saw something that made my blood boil: a weed.

Usually, I don't care much about weeds--I think that as a society, they're undervalued, seen as trespassers or terrible plants coming to destroy the World Of Our Beautiful Immaculate Lawns. Most of the time, they're pretty, with brightly colored flowers that light up your front lawn instead of making it look ugly. Today, I guess I was feeling both angry at my grades and at these ugly, yellow, giant weeds just killing the dandelions growing next to them. (Some weeds are better than others).


If problems had hair, the hair would be the weeds I saw today. A weird analogy, I know, but all the stress I've been feeling the past month to finish projects, etc., has really took my toll. That toll must be pretty big if I think weeds are hair, now that I think about it... When I couldn't yank out the weeds on my first try, I actually tried to use my stored energy from my last swim practice (long, long, ago.....like 2 weeks ago) to keep pulling. However, the roots of the problems (hahahapunny) were too deep, and I went to get a weed fork.
After repeatedly stabbing at the roots, I got one weed out--it was probably the most satisfying, happy, and disgusting part of my WEEK, let alone my day. It felt great to yank one of the ugly plants out. When I was little, my guidance counselor used to tell my class, "When some people get angry, they take it out by ripping paper. Others scribble. Others read." And I yank weeds! I'm so special.
 
It felt like I had actually pulled out my problems. I moved onto the next one (divide and conquer!!), and pulled that one out, too. In the end, I had pulled out 3 weeds with roots that were half a foot deep. Remarkably, I don't feel that stressed anymore. Some of you should try pulling out weeds when you're angry, too; after doing so, you feel better, and your yard is not being taken over by ugly weeds anymore. You'll make more space for pretty weeds, which DO, contrary to popular belief, deserve a place in this world ;D
 
A picture of the weeds I pulled out:



4 comments:

  1. I agree that pulling weeds is a great way to relieve stress. Yard work in general seems to have a positive effect on your day, especially when it's such a nice day like today. Good luck with any future weed-pulling endeavours!

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  2. I think pulling weeds is extremely tedious. Usually, even if I see weeds I just ignore them. However, last year (the last time I pulled weeds) I bonded with my sister and my mom. It would have been more fun if we weren't pulling weeds but I guess it was pretty enjoyable. I ripped out the most enormous weeds (probably around the size of the ones in your picture or bigger). We were completely exhausted afterwards but the house looked like someone lived in it again.

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  3. My grandfather used to be the gardener of our family. During the summer, he would spend endless hours our in the yard working with the plants and pulling weeds. Your blog post reminded me of him and the work he did. I never really understood why he worked all day like that, but when you think about it, it definitely makes sense that it is a stress reliever. I don't actually like weeding, however. I find it hot, strenuous, and dirty.

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  4. Pulling out these huge weeds at least makes me feel really satisfied with my hard work - okay, the work wasn't that bad, but still :)

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