It's the sixth week into the school year and you're sitting on a rigid desk chair in your cramped room. Your life is sprawled across the top of your desk and all of the work you have yet to complete, or even begin, is in front of you, dimly lit by the lamp your mother stressed that you bring to school. The lamp you never thought you'd use because college was suppose to be more fun than it is hard work. You were only supposed to use this space for sleeping. Your mom was right, though, she always is, but especially with the little things that seem insignificant at the time.
There's a to-do list taped to the wall beside you, a full sheet representing the never-ending circle that you've found yourself in. Half of that list may be crossed off, but that's not important right now. All of the looming responsibilities that need tending to triumph your little victories in this moment.
You think of your mom again and your stress turns a little more into melancholy. You miss sleeping in, spending time at home, having her to talk to, having a home cooked meal.
Your eyes dart back to the mess of paperwork, the intertwined binders and textbooks, whose words make less sense now than they ever have before. You don't know where to pick back up. You're unsure if your fingers can keep a grasp on your pen, you've written so much that they've cramped into the most delicate of pains. Your eyes need a break from the computer screen, and your back a break from the metal frames of the chair. But life doesn't stop for anyone, breaks don't exist if you want to succeed. And you are one who wants to succeed.
This feeling is all too familiar and you know what is to come in a few short minutes, seconds even. Soon enough it has arrived and there you are, feeling as if you're drowning, unable to catch a breath. Your homework, classes, professors and extra curricular activities are the waves crashing in on you. The island, the place that can save you, your friends, a full night's sleep, a day to yourself, is just out of reach. You feel helpless.
What you don't realize though, is that this moment is a blessing in disguise. This feeling of drowning is actually your breath of fresh air. It serves a reminder that you're alive, a reminder that you possess extremely incredible characteristics: perseverance, work ethic, will power, strength.
If we never knew pain, hardship, anxiety or stress, how could we ever know love, happiness or what it is to feel as if we're on top of the world?
All of these difficult moments, the times in which you feel as if the waves are carrying you out and you're gasping for air that does not exist, they're actually just directing you toward the breath of fresh air. They are the reminder that this is life and although it comes with waves, it makes each peak moment that much more beautiful.
Although you may feel as if your world is crashing, it's actually just pulling apart to push you back into reality.
And as the great Kurt Vonnegut once said,
"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'"
