Complainypants will be Complainypants

"The world is full of Complainypants."

I was enjoying  lunch with my graduate school classmates.... until they transformed into the dreaded "complainypants".

Now, what exactly is a complainypants?

Meet Mr. Money Mustache, a.k.a MMM, the dude who has converted me to the Cult of 

Mustachianism. MMM has a knack of creating amazing and memorables terminologies such as: 

hedonistic sukka, car clowns and complainypants.

....anyway, back to my topic.

The complainypants classmates are mad because of this certain professor's "poor" decisions which affected us.

To make the long story short, that professor could have saved us a lot of trouble if he followed option

"X". However, he went with option "Y". After the succeeding semester, he tells us that it was option 

"X" all along, and we have to comply with it within 3 months, or else we repeat the subject.

Because my classmates were fed up with this professor's antics, they blamed him for whatever misery

they experienced. "If he could have done this and that instead of this, we wouldn't be in this 

predicament." 

I have my own issues with our professor: I do not like his teaching style. I also do not like that it 

takes him 10-15 minutes to have a morning prayer. I do not like that he injects unnecessary and 

irrelevant matters to discuss during lecture hours to kill time. But since I do know that we are 

different styles and opinions, I try no to hate him that deeply. I understand that we are all humans, 

with our differences and shortcomings.

I can't help but laugh as well, for I also share the same predicament with them. School requirements 

are piling up and I have yet to study for our exams. 

But right now.. I'm behaving as if I don't care a shit. No pressure.

I guess this is one of the effects of reading Augusten Burrough's "This is How". 

"This is how the past haunts us. We think about it."

"When somebody experiences something truly horrific and shocking or so unimaginably 

painful and ruinous and they survive, all you can do is wonder, "But how?". 

This is how: By living what exists in our life right this moment. And by recognizing that the

 origin of what we have or do not have is irrelevant."

Since something happened to us by circumstances beyond our control, we expect the other party who 

offended to pay compensation. When we are unjust and unfairly treated, we demand we treated 

otherwise.

... and what did Augusten write?

" The truth is that life itself is brutally, obscenely unfair."

"Avoid self-pity by taking responsibility for everything that happens to you, even if somebody

 else is at fault. By taking responsibility, I don't mean to play doormat. I mean, repair yourself. 

Love forward. Move on. Then, only then, see if you can wrangle some empathy."

Even The First Noble Truth in Buddhism agrees. "Life is full of suffering."

And we suffer more by living and blaming the past, hoping it could be different.

 We can stop haunting the past by living in the present.

My present right now, is not what our professor did to us, My present is the decision on which task to prioritize and act on. 

I've been a complainypants myself, and I still am. 

I can decide to blame the professor entirely....

...or I can create my Escape Plan and plan for my next action steps.

That's more appealing and optimistic than trapping myself in the shoes of a complainypants, isn't it?