park in the back.

My ex-boyfriend did not like to have to walk far from the parking lot to the store. I guess no one does. What's the point of having a car if you have to do a lot of walking anyway? I've been known to drive up and down a couple of rows of cars myself, around the block a couple of times if I'm in a downtown setting. But his tolerance for a far away space was much lower than mine. At some point, I'd be ready to give up and just park wherever rather than keep wasting time and gas on the effort of finding a place right up front. He would insist that I keep trying. Finally, I would get sick of it enough that I would suggest that I could drop him off up front and then park the car myself. That would shame him into accepting whatever spot was left. Ah, relationship mind games.

That was kind of an annoying thing about him, sure, but it's pretty insignificant. Just to be fair to him, I will mention that I shuffle my feet when I wear sandals, and it makes noise. Actually, pretty much everything I do makes noise. That's an annoying thing about me, call it even.

After I'd been dating Josh for a while, I noticed that he always, always parked in the back. Even if there were a bunch of spaces up front, empty and waiting to be filled, he just pulled in to the first place he found, and it was done. It was such a contrast to what I was used to. I finally made a joke about it one day.

"Uh, you know. There's an empty space in the next lot that I think is slightly farther from the store than this one."

"I hate driving around for a space. I can walk."

It was like the clouds lifted. This philosophy, so odd and illogical seeming, made sense to me. Finding a parking space in a crowded lot can be stressful, what with all the other cars and the stalking of pedestrians who might have be vacating a prime location soon. And to think, I could just bypass all of that by parking in the back. As my mother would say, "Do you have two broken legs?" I'm twenty-four years old. I can walk an extra fifty meters.

I kid you not when I say this attitude has changed my life. It's a very specific example of not sweating the small stuff. Today, this is my advice for a happier life to you. Park in the back. And as you make the long walk up to the store, feel free to shuffle your feet.