The Struggle

Sometimes I feel like I take my life for granted. I am well aware that I have it pretty good, but every now and then I'll come across somebody who has it really bad and feel sorry for them. They can't help it that their life is the way it is, nor can I help it that my life is the way it is. But today I decided to challenge myself that would make me really appreciate how lucky I actually am. I decided that I should give myself some sort of handicap, so maybe I could view life from somebody else's perspective. So I had my friends duct tape oven mitts to my hands.

This ought to make my life a little bit more challenging, right? So I decided to go about my daily tasks, which proved to be much harder than usual, so I went over to my computer...

Everytime I tried to hit a key, I ended up hitting the fifteen surrounding ones as well. This made for some awkward AIM conversations. Fortunately, my responses did not differ that much from the norm. Example:

FriendOfNate: hey nate, i've been having a really bad day and could use some cheering up : (
Nate: frvfrggvbgkiljfkcmmoripjmew
FriendOfNate: LOL! thanx! i needed that ; )
Nate: gvmhej90rerdke99m

Then I decided to watch some television...

Not easy! Those big, clunky mitts of mine were far too large to operate the tiny buttons on the remote. So I decided to do what I normally do when there is nothing good on TV...

Masturbate to a Bed, Bath & Beyond catalogue. I, however, had no such luck. But while I was awkardly groping at the clasp on my belt in an attempt to remove my pants, my phone started to ring!

But by the time I was able to answer, the caller had hung up.

I'd had enoug of this awful life without television, or telephones, or meaningful IM converstations, etc. So I decided to end everything right there and then! I was going to kill myself using the sharpest of kitchen knives I could find! But...

...no dice.

This experience has really made me appreciate my life on a whole new level. My struggle with the oven mitts taught me a valuable lesson: It's tough to be a bear. Those big paws may be good for catching fish, climbing trees, and basic survival, but when it comes down to it, paws just will not do. And I can honestly say that I never want to be a bear.

Unless, of course, it was this one: