Pendulum

“Mister, I’d like to go to the corner of …” – a common statement for those who ride in taxis.

“I don’t know where that is.” –immediately a flair of annoyance is felt in the pit of my belly. You’re a taxi driver, how do you not know where I’m going? It’s not that hard.

We all have those days where you’re annoyed with life. Mainland China is no different. Some days, it seems to provide the epitome of annoyance:

-->You step in gruel in a city gutter when you moved off the sidewalk to give way to four old ladies walking side by side

…the man cuts in front of you in line when you want to buy your noodles

…you finally get your coffee, only to realize it’s NesCafe instant coffee with prepackaged milk powder and sugar already swilled around in it.

…and just as you say “fine, I can deal with Chinese non-dairy creamer…”, a man body-checks you on the street, sending that precious, and rather expensive, bit of caffeine flying to the ground.

At this point, what’s the point in leaving the house?

As bad as this situation is, it is bound to turn around at some point, right? You know the reality of the matter: it’s not that bad, you’re not too victimized, and good golly, this is just one day in the life of living the dream… The heavy pendulum of life swing back in the other direction and you’re back on top again:

-->You walk to the coffee shop in time to get coffee at 9:45am before class

...you’re casually walking down the street when someone calls your name, you turn, realizing it’s someone you knew in high school: you stop, you chat, you can’t believe it (this really happened)

…you get stopped by a Chinese person who asks you for directions (a very big feat if it happens in Chinese, which it sometimes does and you feel awesome afterward)

…you run to the gym, don’t feel tired at all during your 40 minute cardio-fest, rocking out to the tunes of Frank Sinatra remixed with Lil Wayne

…you run home and realize you have made room for that 20 mins to read a leisure book before bed

…it’s 11:30pm, lights off. You know you’re going to get your 8 hours of fine rest.

It can go both ways, taking it in stride is the difference between living life and extremism.