As a teacher, one of the many, many (i.e. one or two) pearls of wisdom I gave my senior students involved the way things had a way of hitting you all at once in college. For weeks at a time, it’ll seem as though you have nothing going on. No papers due, no exams to study for, and no special projects to worry about. I told them this was the calm before the storm.

Inevitably, almost as if they had gotten together to figure out how to best mess with your head, all of your professors will begin having papers and exams during the same general time frame. The trick, I told them, was to take advantage of the down time because it wasn’t really down time. The professors are just lulling you to sleep. Work ahead, begin writing your papers weeks in advance, and those days where you have ten things due all at once won’t seem so bad.

It was good advice — even though it was a classic “do as I say not as I do” kind of thing.

Life is the same way. The saying “all bad things come in threes” (a saying proven beyond all reasonable doubt after the third “Final Destination” movie) references the idea that things in life tend to come at you in bunches. Of course, these aren’t just restricted to bad things. Good things have a tendency to come at you in bunches, too. For example, I’ll never forget that October when I found two quarters face up in the parking lot. Good times, good times…

Right now, in my life, I think I am experiencing the calm before the storm. I’m in a comfortable, easy-going, transitional stage now. It’s nice, but I know it won’t last. The scary, “grown up” stage of life is waiting for me around the corner. I know it’s there. I can hear it giggling at me. Plus, I can see its shadow.

It’s time I take my own advice and use this down time to my advantage. My homework assignment? Lots of lots of praying. I could use all of your help, though. Don’t worry, in this case, helping me isn’t cheating.

This was first published at my old blog on March 20, 2006. Still quite relevant, I must say.