This article is not meant to be a "Debbie downer" read, and I don't want to seem like I am whining or complaining. I just think it is about time I address people's common misconceptions of me being "the most sun-shiny person [they] have ever met," as I have been told before, and to reach out to anyone who is going through something in their lives, no matter what it is.

In general, I am a very happy person. I have the best family anyone could ever hope for, a group of true friends who care for me, and an opportunity at an amazing school that I am not even paying for. I felt like I had absolutely no reason to feel the way I do sometimes. But you know what? I still do.

At the beginning of this school year, for whatever reason, I wasn't very happy. I went into the year training with my fellow friends to be an RA and I was very excited for what was to come. But when school actually started, things didn't feel right. Naturally, I was stressed from all of my school work and other school-related responsibilities I had to worry about, but it was different this year. Last year I felt like I was better able to handle my stress. It's not like I have more work this year or anything, I just seem to get stressed more easily. On top of that, I honestly feel lonely. I live in an apartment on campus by myself this year and I am very lucky to have it (and not pay for it), but it definitely isn't the same as being in the social freshman residence hall that I was in last year.

I think that that is partly why I feel homesick too, (even though my house is 30 minutes away from campus and I go home pretty much every other weekend). Some days, I would just sit in my room for hours doing nothing or take frequent naps, longing to go home. For reasons I can't really explain, I felt like I wasn't a part of my family anymore and that I was missing out on doing things with them. And when I did see them, it was bittersweet because I knew I would have to go back to school.

With the stress from school and the loneliness I was experiencing, I began to simply go through the motions of each day. I had my days where I was fine, where I was happy and where I did fun things with my friends. But then I had my other days where I felt dull inside, and some days where I had to hold back random urges to burst into tears.

Of course, I never really told anyone this. I would tell people that I was stressed or going crazy from all of my work, but I have never been good at letting people in and showing them my emotions. I am not like that even with the closest people to me--it gives me a weird feeling of vulnerability that I can't explain. But at the same time, people think I am always happy and don't have a trouble in the world, and that doesn't seem right either. It gives them the impression that I am incapable of hurting.

So, why am I talking about all of this now and putting myself out there? For one, it is much easier to get it all out indirectly through an article online, and I will totally admit to that. But the main reason why I am saying all of this is because I want to bring up a point. I know people who are actually going through some unimaginable things right now and I have no idea how they cope. They are experiencing things I could never think of having to deal with, and I cannot express how sorry I am for them. Because of this, I honestly feel like a total a**hole that I feel like crap sometimes when I have no reason to. I feel so selfish when I look at my life compared to other people's lives and the things they have to go through, and I tell myself I have no excuse to feel the way I do sometimes. But I realized something--I do have a reason to feel this way.

The reason is that even if you have a great life and great things in it, the bad things are still allowed to get you down. They may seem minimal to someone else compared to what they are going through, but you are always going to have someone who has got it worse than you. Just like you are always going to have someone who has things better than you. That's life. Does that mean we aren't allowed to be sad or happy because of it?

I am sure a lot of other people (especially students my age) are feeling what I am feeling right now, so I write this to you to let you know that it is okay to feel like crap sometimes. We are teenagers with hormones, we have busy and stressful lives, and we haven't quite found our place in the world just yet. It makes sense to go through this every once in a while. If you didn't, you would be some sort of superhuman.

I end on this note: even though I may seem like a happy, "sun-shiny" person all of the time, that isn't always true. You should always acknowledge and recognize that someone may be going through something you don't know about and no matter how small it may seem to you, it could seem like the world to them. So, with that taken into consideration, I suggest we all do what Cinderella says and "Have courage and be kind."