It's the little things.

It's the little things that drive me absolutely bonkers... but I also appreciate the little things. Let me back up.
Yesterday, I decided to go to the gym. My roomie and I try to go every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, although I'll admit that at 7:30am, I usually just roll over and go back to sleep. But we were able to drag ourselves out of our beds and get ready and slowly trudge over to the gym (on the other side of campus, mind you). When we got there, much to my annoyance, the baseball team was already there, lifting weights and generally screaming at each other. I quietly set the treadmill and turned on my iPod Netflix channel to "Eat Pray Love." "Eat Pray Love" is perhaps one of the most inspiring movies I have ever watched. Although it got a lot of bad reviews, the general gist of the movie is that a woman sets out to clear her life of its growing toxicity and find true balance. She does this through learning, respectively, to eat, pray, and love. I admire those who can live a simple, worry-free life, and I think that to even remotely get close to that level, we must slow down and address our lives by the "urgent" versus the "important." Are these things that I do necessary? How are my life decisions taking a toll on me?
After I finished watching the movie, I decided to start the "Zen Garden" Pandora station that I have on my iPod. It's very relaxing. However, as I began to listen to it, the team got louder and overpowered my attempt at serenity. My first thought was, "HOW DARE THEY?!" But I reigned myself in and turned up the volume and tried to refocus my mind on how my body felt as I pushed it more than I have before. But they continued to get louder, and so I gave them mean looks and wondered why they couldn't just leave. I ended up finishing my workout, angry, and just leaving and not going on any longer in my workout.
As I look back on this now, I realize that I appreciate that the team was there and that I overreacted. I appreciate that they were there because I pushed myself harder than I would have if they hadn't been there. (As a side note, I definitely have been feeling improvements-- I kicked up my workout from half at 3 mph and half at 3.5 to straight-up 3.5 followed by an additional 20 minutes at 3 mph to cool off. It may not seem like a big deal or a hard workout, but I've never exercised before, so I feel good about starting slow.) I overreacted because they were doing their workout, as is required of them. I admire that they were able to get up early, and they were yelling to make sure that they kept going, kept pushing themselves. So while I may not like working out with loud guys who intimidate me, I recognize that I was wrong in my frustrations. I need to post this because I need to remember it. I need to remember the fact that everyone is going to get on my nerves as some point or another, but I need to slow down, take a deep breath, and move on, as if nothing happened. Because ultimately, that's how we can all become better people. You get up and brush yourself off and move on so that you can reach higher places in everything you do.
So I'm cleaning out my mind, and acceptance is the first step. It's a small step, but it's also a huge step. There's always going to be a tension between how I feel and how I choose to react. But if I can react rationally in such situtations and not dwell on things that annoy me, I can be a happier, well-rounded person. I can make steps towards that. It's change, and it's wonderful (and it's scary). Practice patience-- in the end, it will make you a happier, calmer, more content person. Peace.