Gettin' Stress Off My Chest

This past academic year (April of last year to now) has been stressful for me for some reason, more so than usual. Little things that I used to be able to brush off have recently started to really make me irritated. The high school that I work at has always had its fair share of bad kids, but while the crap they always pull (calling me names, throwing things in class, etc.)was easy to combat in the past, this year it has irritated me to the point where just looking at them makes me angry. I come home at night, trying to relax after dinner, and I'm still thinking about crap the students did at eight in the morning that day. I'm sure they weren't thinking about me, but I was thinking about them.

Not only that, but I also had to deal with crap at the company office as well. Again, I brought that stuff home with me, letting it stew in my mind and giving me stress. This has gone on all year, and recently it started to affect my marriage. Last night I had a senseless argument with my wife, taking out my frustrations on her. She still hasn't forgiven me, and rightfully so. It took that for me to realize that I need to seriously find a way to get rid of my stress.

This morning, I thought back to college, when some roommates of mine had an idea for getting rid of stress. They had various problems, so they decided to take an aluminum baseball bat and take turns whacking a telephone pole outside. They hit the thing so hard that the end piece on the bat flew off in rage. They laughed and named the bat "Liberty Bat". They were free from their stress.

With that in mind, this morning I took a few pillows from the bedroom, grabbed a stick, and started hitting the pillows as hard as I could. I visualized the faces of all the people, students, and idiots that did me wrong over the past year, and hit the crap out of them as hard as I could. Man, what a feeling! I felt much better after that.

My advice to you if you have stress: hit something. Don't hit somebody; that would give you more stress. But hit something.

The Road to Dazaifu

This is a picture of the arcade leading up to Dazaifu Temple, during our trip to Fukuoka last November. Notice the many torii along the way. Beautiful stuff.