Posted On June 6, 2014By Matt "Dotty" DotterweichIn Miscellaneous
A Self-Help Essay By Dotty Getting robbed is a scary thing and your first reaction is to comply with everything your assailant is demanding. I believe all of us who have been a victim of robbery in a foreign country can relate. In the moments afterward you feel helpless, victimized, and are discouraged by thoughts of having to continue. I vowed from that day forward, if I was ever robbed again, I would be in-control of the situation. Therefore, after months of research, I came up with a method that
Read MoreGuilt, shame, sadness, anger, resentment, loneliness, heartbreak, confusion.. The list of uncomfortable feelings unforuntately goes on and on. Let’s face it – nobody likes feeling any of those feelings, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that these feelings are bad and that you shouldn’t be feeling them. In order to grow from painful experiences, we need to experience the sadness and other uncomfortable feelings that come with it. If we feel sadness or loss, we need to let ourselves cry instead of holding it in and putting on a fake smile. If we
Read MoreToday is my 24th birthday. What better way is there to celebrate than to make a listicle of all the important things I’ve learned in my 24 years on this planet? Without further ado, here are some of the key lessons I’ve learned thus far in life: 1. Not everyone finds offensive jokes funny. Some people find them offensive. 2. Never buy drinks at sporting events or concerts. Pocket shots and flasks are your wallet’s best friends. 3. Your parents actually have good advice, at least most of the
Read MoreNo one really told us what adulthood would be like when it came time to face the music. If they did, maybe I envisioned it differently, or I just wasn’t paying attention because I was too busy dreaming about my Carrie Bradshaw closet. My friends will be the first to tell you that I believe aging is a gift and I love getting older, but at the same time, being an adult can be really annoying and lame too. But, in order to get where you want to be in
Read MoreThere is nothing wrong with being in your twenties and having absolutely no idea what you want to do with your life. It is not a race, and there is no time limit to decide on what you are going to do. This is the point in your life where you can experiment, chase your dreams, and try new things. You are young enough to try something, hate it, and start all over again. Sometimes the only way to know what it is that you like, is to determine what
Read MoreWith this year’s college graduations in full swing, there are now thousands of kids joining the work force across the country. For many, this will be their first real, career-oriented job ever. Of course, times are still rough. This is not a surprise and has been covered in almost every publication for the past few years. I graduated in 2011 and times were rough then too. It can take months to find a job these days. There are thousands of companies looking for “entry-level” jobs that need years of experience.
Read MoreThree hundred and sixty-five days ago, I walked across the stage at Radio City, diploma in hand, gauze on my post-Senior Formal feet and mom in the audience. I said goodbye to sharing secrets, stories, and clothes with my closest girlfriends, Tuesday night drink specials, and the corner-deli guy. I said goodbye to all-nighters, gin buckets, and afternoon ragers. I said goodbye to friends, to family, to professors-turned mentors. I said goodbye to one home, and said hello again to another. I said goodbye to college and hello to home.
Read MoreWhen your neutral state has finally surpassed that flat-line contentedness and you find yourself surfing an unexplained wave of happiness–life is good! You’re in love with breathing and being and even that barely-there whiff of lavender tinted B.O. wafting from your pits (thanks to your new all-natural deodorant) is the smell of heaven itself. This could very well be how your lazy Sunday begins. And then, to the dismay of anyone who ever had a soul, Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy,” (the anthem to your Sunday,) which has been playing on
Read MoreSitting still for an entire hour—it sounds easy enough. It’s simple to turn off your phone, power down the computer, find a quiet space, and sit. You don’t even do anything—the requirement is to literally do nothing! Almost seems like cheating, right? Right? Recently, I had the opportunity to see for myself just how “easy” it would be. One World Still is an organization with a simple objective: meditate for an hour once a month. No dues or fees are necessary to be part of this event, and no registration is
Read MoreWe all have things that we try to hold on to. Sometimes we do it because we think it’s what we are supposed to do. Sometimes we do it out of habit. Sometimes we do it out of fear. What we don’t realize however, is that holding onto something that we are not meant to hold on to can potentially guide us from the course we should actually be taking in life. Holding on to things that we need to let go of can attach us to our past like
Read MoreI have a curiosity for new experiences and adventures, an originality quest that lately has caused me to be reckless with my intentions and sloppy with my boundaries. The careful deliberateness I had cultivated evaporated somewhere between devirginizing a twenty-six year old and my eighteenth bacon wrapped hot dog in a month span. Here are some lessons I have been privy to lately that I have realized you are never too old to learn: 1. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. This statement encompasses a range of
Read MoreThis one goes out to the Class of 2014. Whether you’re graduating this weekend, next weekend, or in June (yeah, I went to UCSB, I know all too well the pains of the quarter system and its late graduation dates), whether you attended a private school with 2,000 people or a public school with 20,000, whether you majored in dance or biochemistry, this article is for you. I’m not exactly a perpetual optimist. A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece about some of the harsh realities of post-grad
Read MoreMay 2014 is upon us. It marks 1 year from when the best four years of my life (so far) ended and I entered this thing people call “the real world.” I haven’t seen many of the people with whom I shared classes, horrible professors, drinks, and memories for almost 12 months now. And soon, the class of 2014 will join me in the world I have not yet completely learned to love. There are so many things I wish I would have known about the post-grad life, but it is
Read MoreBecause you can’t always do it the easy way… Think Spend Sunday night marinating in a bath of whiskey and deep thought. What do you want? What do you not want? How do you feel? Make a pros and cons list if that helps. But seriously jump in a bubble bath at least and check in with yourself. Write Tell your feelings to a blank journal page. Try to make sense of your feelings. The Decision Decide, almost on a premeditated whim, that you are going to
Read MoreI’m pretty lucky when it comes to dealing with anxiety, because anxiety and I have a fairly straightforward relationship. Whenever I think I’m doing marginally okay, or feeling particularly productive, anxiety pops into my brain and quickly takes the wheel. It doesn’t matter how much I have achieved in my short 24 years of existence, anxiety has this trick that makes those achievements seem insignificant—it likes to remind me that I’m only one of approximately 6 billion humans on a planet floating in a vacuum of infinite space as we
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