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I, Carly Killingsworth, am the photographer of a photo of my friends at sunset in the water. I give Her Campus U Conn and Her Campus Media permission to use my photos in an article about using \'Do Not Disturb\' as a tool for prioritizing well-being and se
I, Carly Killingsworth, am the photographer of a photo of my friends at sunset in the water. I give Her Campus U Conn and Her Campus Media permission to use my photos in an article about using \'Do Not Disturb\' as a tool for prioritizing well-being and se
Original photo by Carly Killingsworth
U Conn | Life > Experiences

It’s Not That Serious

Julia Babcock Student Contributor, University of Connecticut
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Conn chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

It was a late Wednesday night and I was working at the ice cream store getting ready for closing.  The last few stragglers wandered in and one person in particular made that night stand out to me.  After receiving his milkshake and his straw, he turned to me and the one other person working that night and yelled at us.  

What had caused this reaction? When he put his straw in his lid, it bent slightly.  The lids were the wrong size and the straws didn’t fit perfectly, but by no means did that prevent you from drinking out of it. 

If I could talk to that man again I would say: “I don’t know why the straw caused such a fury, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s not that serious.”

One of my personal biggest icks is when I am in the car with a friend and the GPS goes off dictating the next turn in an area we recognize, and my friend yells at the phone to just “shut up.”  If I could say something to that friend right now I would say: “It can be frustrating when you don’t need the GPS anymore, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s not that serious.”

There are a lot of things in my life that I choose to take very seriously — school, friends, family — but there are others that I let take up very little space in my mind— the things that are just not that serious.  

This expands beyond small inconveniences. I used to be the kind of person that would overthink every single interaction I had with another person. I thought everything I did needed to be done perfectly, until I learned that some things are just not that serious. 

Taking too much time going over the small things causes us to ignore the things that really do matter.  Life is full of deciding what to prioritize, and it can be overwhelming to see everything on your plate and trying to dedicate time to everything. Those are the moments when we have to decide what really matters. This can be different for everyone.

So, when I sit in the car on my way home and my GPS tells me what turn to take even though I have driven that same road thousands of times, I laugh it off and turn the GPS off, because to me it’s just not that serious. If I don’t do well on an exam, however, that’s a little more serious and warrants some frustration for me.

This mentality has given me the opportunity to have so many new experiences and new friendships.  I talk to the person I don’t know that sits down near me on the first day of class, and if they don’t like me, it’s not that serious, because I’m sure someone else in the class will. If I want to see a film and all of my friends are busy, I can go alone, because it might be scary, but it’s not that serious. 

Things can be scary, and to some people they can be that serious, but little by little, shifts in my mentality allowed me to live freely and do the things I want to do, even if everyone around me wants to do something else. It allows me to know what I want and to just go for it.

When I say that something is not that serious it doesn’t mean I don’t put in effort or care at all.  Sometimes I will have an assignment that I think is not that serious, but I still try. I just don’t allow the assignment to take over my life and to stop me from being able to do something that maybe to me is a little bit more serious. 

Find those things for you that are that serious, that are worth dedicating your life to. Find those things taking up unnecessary parts of your mind, the ones that can be done without the level of effort those things that do matter take. Make sure you are not dedicating too much time to those things that are not needed.  

If something is weighing heavy on your mine, just remember that sometimes, it’s really just not that serious.

Julia Babcock

U Conn '27

Julia is a member of the University of Connecticut Her Campus Chapter. She is from Ridgefield Connecticut and plans to write pieces about lifestyle, mental health, and literature

Julia is a junior at the University of Connecticut, who currently studies Molecular and Cell Biology. Julia is involved in the Pre Med Society and the club Figure Skating team.

In her free time Julia enjoys playing piano, going for runs, ice skating, and reading. Her favorite books are “I am the Messenger” by Markus Zusak and “The Darkness Outside Us” by Elliot Schrefer. Julia hopes one day to be an author publishing contemporary books as well as a board certified OB/GYN.