The Anatomy of the Desk: Stressed vs. Unstressed

Lately I’ve been noticing certain specifics in my life and wondering: If I were in a novel, would this be symbolic? Would this be metaphorical, or hold some kind of connotation other than the literal? Maybe this is just a crazy English major problem, but it’s been on my mind.

One of the biggest areas of my life that I see this concept in is my desk. When my desk is messy, so is my life. Or rather, when my life is messy, so is my desk. I’m guessing that the busy life starts and then the hectic desk area kicks in.

The desk is an area of work for most, including me, except for when I get stressed, when it then becomes a place for me to put everything and anything that I come into contact with. This includes literal things, as well as figurative baggage that I’m dealing with. Earlier this week, my desk became a physical representation for the stress that I was feeling inside.

Let’s take a look:

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The stressed desk.

Pictured here is a general mess, homework that I should probably be doing (but instead I’m watching Once Upon a Time or reading a non-education book of choice), a dirty bowl from breakfast (probably three days ago), a secret santa gift that I still need to give out, a photo of my brothers, and tissues to cry into (because I miss my brothers).

A mess, am I right? This is what my life comes to when it gets to be too much. I take everything out on my desk. Poor desk.

Now let’s take a look at what my desk looks like when I finally am able to get my life together:

The un-stressed desk.
The un-stressed desk.

You can see that my homework is (pretty much, hopefully) finished, there’s not much of a mess left, I’ve received a “Best Day Ever” mug from my sorority big sister, and the photo of my family is just one week away from being in the present. I’ve gotten my stuff together, for the most part.

There’s still a little bit of clutter that I’ve shoved into various corners and crevices of my workspace, but those are just minor things that I have to deal with. I have a feeling that come next week, when finals begin, my desk is going to start looking a little bit more like the first picture. However, I know that this is all a cycle, and soon my desk will be empty as I’m preparing to travel back home for the holidays.

Life has it’s ups and downs. For some reason, I picture my life as a story being told, and can read into my own symbolism. Maybe if I keep my desk clean even when I’m stressed, the stress won’t come on as strong. I’m not sure if that’s the way it works, but I might try.

Have a great week, and good luck on finals to any students!

Brooke

Published by Brooke Wharton

Hey there, my name's Brooke and I'm a sophomore at Hope right now from the southeast side of the state! I'm majoring in secondary English education with a psychology minor, so that I can spread the love of literature everywhere and maybe even become a counselor to help kiddos out with their current and future school life. So far at Hope I've helped with Time to Serve, joined a bible study, am 1-8 song girl, and a member of Greek Life! The only TV show I watch is New Girl, and I love reading young adult lit! You can email me brookelyn.wharton@hope.edu or follow me on twitter @hopebrooke18! You can always find me on Facebook, too!

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