The Perks of Imperfection

There's two minutes left in class, and everyone lines up to leave while I'm sitting at my desk waiting-- there's no sense in standing there staring at the clock for two minutes. As the clock finally turns to 10:30, all the students rush into the halls like prisoners set free. I make my way to the right side of the hallway, walking through groups of people just to get from my class to my locker.

Ahh, my locker. I put my geometry book back, sometimes change the song on my iPod, make sure my cactus is all right (the little cactus was living in my friend's car, but it got too cold so we moved it to my locker), look at the pictures hung up, and then make my way to German class.

By this time, the heavy traffic of students has died down, so the walk to fourth hour isn't too bad. I walk down the hallway, wave at my friend, and then go down the stairs. I usually need to go to the bathroom around this time, but if I go during passing time I'll be late for class.

Once I'm on the second floor I have to walk past the student doors. From the student doors to the front entrance there are always mobs of kids hanging out, which is a challenge to walk through.

I make my way through it, walk down the rest of the hallway, and get into German. My teacher says "Guten Tag" as I walk in and I reply with the same. I put my backpack down and take out my earbuds. I get up to ask my teacher "Darf ich zur Toilette gehen?" which translates to "May I go to the bathroom?" She replies with "Schnell," a German word for "quick."

I try to be fast so I don't disrupt the class by being too late, but when there's not any paper towel in the bathroom 80 percent of the time, it takes longer to dry my hands. I use the slow hand dryer with virtually no forceful airflow and end up wiping half the water on my jeans. Who doesn't love wet jeans, right?

I walk back to my classroom and as I open the door, of course, everyone turns around. I walk to my desk secretly hoping my jeans don't look weird and sit down.

The lesson begins, I start to take notes and try to ignore my growling stomach. Half an hour later, it's time for lunch and time to face the chaos in the halls once again.

Although the hallways are a bit much to handle at times, the paper towel situation is completely annoying and the cactus in my locker is always facing the wrong direction, I find these little annoyances somehow comforting.

They're always there to remind me life isn't perfect. It never will be, so we must learn to love the simple things that remind us to have hope. To have hope my jeans won't be wet, hope that the cactus is still thriving, and to have hope that one day the hall won't be divided by the jocks, the nerds, and the stoners. To hope that one day there will be no quest for perfection in life, but a quest for quintessential happiness.