What's Under Your Bed?

Tuesday, November 10, 2015
by Brandon Petryna

Long, long ago when I was young and dependent, my parents would nag about the state of my bedroom: it rarely met their standards of tidy. I would challenge their unrealistic ideals by questioning them. When this failed to help my cause I would shove everything under the bed.

Why do my clothes need to be put away? I鈥檓 going to wear them eventually; why must the bed be made? I鈥檒l be sleeping in it again, tonight; who am I hurting? Why does this 鈥渨ho鈥 care?

Person throwing their arms in the air gesturing

My childhood was far too busy to be worrying about cleaning my bedroom. When I was 5, I was a dinosaur. And dinosaurs don鈥檛 clean rooms: they eat bad guys.

Child roaring like a dinosaur.
When I was 8, I was designing blueprints for a super-awesome-teleportation-car-plane.

Blueprints of a car with a plane on top.
When I was 17, I was trapped on the YouTube. Always.

Person sitting at a computer.
Fortunately, the state of my room聽never affected my performance. Based on this unbiased observation, I conclude that everyone functions differently. We all聽have our own styles and approaches to getting tasks completed:聽I, for one, thrive in chaos.聽

Person standing in the wind with an erupting volcano and scorching hot sun in the background.

Frankly, if you see my room, you might cringe; when I see my room, I see an opportunity for a聽hip post. Just because someone does something one way does not mean it鈥檚 the only way. This nugget of wisdom can be applied to your studies.聽A聽clean room might help聽one person focus but that聽doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 a priority for someone else鈥檚 working space.聽

Until my next transmission.