This past summer has brought a lot of grown-up things I've had to confront, most recently, taking on my college loans.  This however, is no reason to balk at this process.  As I thought of sending in the loans, I realized there were people on the other side of this messy bureaucracy of lend and repay.  With that in mind, I decided to write them a little note on my first payment envelope.  It went something like this:

Dear College Loan People,

Because I will be repaying my college loans for some time now, I thought it prudent each month (pending these [payments] going electronic) to share with you some of the wisdom your loans have imparted to me.  The first point comes from the poem "One Art" by 20th century American poet Elizabeth Bishop.  She writes:

"The art of losing is hard to master."

I agree.

It's easy to think that the world hates you when you don't get your way -- that God views of you as some sort of scab that he's just waiting to pick off at the next stoplight, that small animals and insects are out to get you, and that baristas everywhere want to mess up your americano intentionally because they think your teeth are too crooked, that your parents wish they had any other child in the world except you, that your brother's girlfriend hates all of your handbags and the way you walk, that policemen enjoy ticketing your car window, that everyone thinks you're a bigot and can't pronounce certain words like "water" or "anachronism" correctly, that the sun intentionally burns you, that high school acquaintances avoid you, that bad hair days adore you, and that the mailman keeps letters from people you love because he likes to see you walk to the mailbox each day and shriek at the spider he just put in there only to walk away without a letter and a little more lonely.

You shouldn't think that way though.  That helps nobody.