Now Is The Time To...NOT PANIC! What?

This morning, on my way to the bus station to catch the bus that takes me to New York, I calmly let it slip in the car that I left my phone at home.

My mother starts repeatedly banging her head against her seat and calls me stupid several times, something which I'm quite accustomed to, partially because my mom is notorious for freaking out beyond reason for the smallest things. Fortunately, I do have an office phone, and I gave her that number on a piece of paper while she continued to rant on about "emergency situations". At one point, she asked me to give her my boss's cell phone number.

Ok, NO. I am in no way, comfortable with that.

This is only one situation out of many, but unlike my mom, I don't think I have a panic nerve. Or bone. Or whatever it is in your brain that signals you to panic. Funnily enough, there is a correlation between anxiety and blood pressure (ok, so it's not that funny, it's actually kind of serious), something which I discovered during a blood drive at my high school. I wasn't able to give blood that day, because the nurse said my blood pressure was too low, whereas every single one of my friends seemed perfectly fine. She told me I could take a few laps outside before coming back, if I wanted to give blood. Hahahahaha, that's funny, lady.

Neither low blood pressure nor high blood pressure is good for you, but it's just another piece of evidence to prove my absence-of-panic theory. Every time I've ever been presented with a pressured situation, whether it be a paper due in 24 hours, a train I had to catch, or standing up in front of people, my panic radar has stayed oddly low. Granted, I don't really have stage fright, but it's gotten to a point where I have had something due in an hour, and my roommate starts panicking for me.

You can call me a slacker. Hey, I procrastinate and I'm proud of it. But the outcome of any situation I have encountered has never been bad enough to make me want to panic in the future. I think the only time I've ever had a monumental panic attack was when I was 1/2 hour to 45 minutes late for a job interview. I started crying and flapping my arms wildly in the car, subconsciously moving my whole body forward in the passenger seat as if that could somehow will my mom to go faster. And you know what? I still got the job. Because in the end, we're all still human, and anybody who is human knows that there are uncontrollable forces in the world that make us late, no matter how early we plan ahead or leave. Especially in this job interview situation, I had called earlier telling them I was going to be late, and acted professionally when I got there. The trick is to not profusely apologize and focus on what you're there for.

I think the point I'm trying to make here, is that people panic about the littlest things, when the only thing it's doing is giving you a mini-heart attack. That's not to say you shouldn't ever feel pressured to do things. It's been said that a little pressure in an important situation is helpful in making sure you concentrate and succeed.

But panic is such an unfortunate state. I think part of the reason people panic so much, is because they are unsure of how they would handle the situation if something went wrong. Maybe instead of panicking to get something done - that's seem impossible to get done - focus on what you can do now, and then come up with a plan to efficiently and intelligently finish the rest later. Also, it's important to keep in mind that if you do have something due within the next few hours, you're more likely to come up with a smart solution to finish it when you're cool-headed. Or if you're late for something; ever notice how every traffic light seems to turn red when you're panicking? Chill out, dude! God is not going to hit you with a lightning bolt, I promise.