Our Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha

Author:Neil Pasricha
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2022-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

Adding a scoop of ice cream really does make everything better.

So let’s stop and sing it loud!

For all the boys and girls!

Let’s hold each others’ hands!

And à la mode the world!

AWESOME!

When a butterfly lands on that flower right on the edge of the trail you’re hiking

It’s a beautiful nature cameo.

AWESOME!

Thinking

“How often do you think?”

I remember my eleventh grade English teacher interrupting class one day with that question. We’d been busy having stapler fights, passing notes, and half-heartedly working on book reports about Lord of the Flies when he just sort of paused to challenge us a bit.

“I mean how often do you actually sit back and think?” he asked. The room was silent. “I ask you because you’re really lucky you have the ability to think. You should remember that.”

He paused for a few seconds and looked at us and we paused for a few seconds and looked back. Whatever profound conversation he was trying to have quickly stutter-stopped so we shrugged and began chatting again. Some doodled, some leaned back in chairs, and a couple kids in the corner rubbed glue sticks on each other’s sweatshirts.

It was a long time ago.

I didn’t think about it for years.

But then one day I was finishing up a speech and was gathering my things and stepping off the stage when a man rushed up to me.

“Hey, I got one for the next book,” he started in urgently. I looked up to see wild eyes darting through thick glasses, a weathered face, and black shaggy hair rolling down past his neck.

“Thinking.”

He stared at me for a reaction.

“Thinking,” he said again.

“Yeah, that’s true,” I said. “Thinking is… pretty important.”

“No, no, you don’t understand,” he said sharply, slightly spitting, his hands shaking urgently. “I mean just remembering you have the ability to think. I was in a big car accident last year and my head got hit pretty bad. I spent a year in a coma in the hospital… and I couldn’t think. I couldn’t process thoughts. I knew I was alive but I wasn’t able to have thoughts connect in my brain.”

I must have looked stunned, but he kept going.

“I got out of the hospital a few weeks ago and I’m doing great. I can think again and it’s such a gift. We aren’t always able to think… but if you can, if you can put things together, if you can figure things out, then you’re lucky. I missed a year of my life because I couldn’t think. I will never take it for granted again.”

My mind flashbacked to that eleventh grade classroom with my teacher failing to get our attention. We didn’t understand his point then. How could we? When you’ve always thought, when you can always think, it’s hard seeing you have that ability and hard to imagine not being able to.

So go ahead and think right now about whatever you want to think. Whatever you want! No shame. No guilt. No judgment. You are thinking. It’s okay to think what you’re thinking.

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