The manifold beneifts of Spontaneity

The other day I was pleased to receive another letter from my friend, with whom I have been corresponding since the beginning of the summer. Now, I'm a great fan of writing letters. Even as a little girl, I loved receiving, reading, and writing letters. Now, as I work through my college years, I have not lost the desire to write or receive letters and was glad to find people who shared my sentiments. There's nothing that makes me feel better than getting a nice, long letter in the mail and poring over it with a good cup of tea at your side.

One thing we've gotten to talk about is how both of us are overly thoughtful when it comes to even the tiniest and most "natural" things. When I say "thoughful," I mean that we think about things way too much. In his last letter, he said something that struck me in particular. I had said something about trying to be more spontaneous over this past school year, and he said, "Sometimes I wonder if people like us are actually capable of being truly spontaneous."

I got thinking and it's true. It's probably not possible. When I'm more spontaneous, I have to consciously think about being more spontaneous. It doesn't come naturally. Perhaps that's just the first step on a long journey of becoming less obsessively overly-thoughful. I always enjoy when I'm freer with myself; I end up having a good time and spending great moments with fantastic people. So, why can't I just let myself live and not overanalyze every little detail?

The other day, I was reading a somewhat distressing article about objectively "intelligent" people. Apparently it's more difficult for "intelligent" people to be in a relationship. Now, I'm not bragging. I'm not saying that I'm particularly intelligent. However, I am in the honors program of a good college and I do very, very well. I can definitely sympathize with this claim; I have never been in a relationship or really had the chance of being in one and the majority of my honors colleagues appear sexually frustrated and disfunctional.

I can totally see how that would be the case though, for three main reasons:

1. Smart people can be intimidating.

2. Smart people are often preoccupied with their studies or their work, most of them being obsessively compulsive freaks like myself. Therefore, there is little time for fun and games or when the chance arises, they feel out of place or afraid.

3. Smart people tend to apply logic to everything. It has never failed them. However, in the matters of the heart, nothing is logical, based on a hypothesis, or predictable. Things happen on the spur of the moment. A lot of people can't handle that.

So, intelligent people are basically screwed unless they can lighten up a little bit.

Something to work on for the future...