Help me, please.
Three words, 12 letters. That's all it is. But it's so hard for me to shove these words past my broken lips, to vocalize the thought that has bounced around my head countless times during my college career.
I carry the burden of stress on my shoulders like a badge of honor. Look at how strong I am, I think. I can carry all of this on my own. Even as my shoulders sag and my breath hitches with each step, I smile and bask in the triumph of my "accomplishment." Be stronger, I tell myself. You don't need anyone to hold you together, you're independent -- you hold yourself together even as you fall apart. You clutch at the cracks and seal them together with hastily applied bandages, over and over again and hope that this time it'll be the last. That this will be the time that the mental exhaustion that has plagued you over the course of the year will vanish.
In our culture, there's a dangerous emphasis on being independent, on relying solely on yourself and your abilities. During our education and our careers, this fierce desire to remain self-reliant can spiral out of control. We willfully ignore our mental ailments because we're taught that acknowledging them is a sign of a weak mind. Buck up, they say. Life's tough for everyone. And as a young person, I've found that our stress is discredited in the eyes of the older generations. What do I know of anxiety? I know I haven't had to worry about a mortgage or paying the bills, but that doesn't mean my worry is any less significant than yours. I'm willingly accumulating over a hundred thousand dollars in debt to pursue an education -- how's that for stress?
But who says we have to endure this pain alone? We don't have to keep our exhaustion bottled up and shoved into the crevices of a halfhearted smile. Lean on the people you trust or the help of a professional to pull you through. Shoulder whatever is weighing on your mind with people who understand, and together, we can stretch our hunched backs and free one another from the demons the plague us day and night. There's no shame in reaching out for a helping hand. And while many may rant and rave about "picking yourself up by the bootstraps" and making your own way, there's only so much a tired mind can do. More often than not, we will run ourselves into the ground trying to maintain this visage of control.
So it's time to cut ourselves a break and start to put our faith and our pain in the hands of others. We can't keep accumulating stress like coins in a fountain, as we can't be the vessel for every fear and anxiety that we've ever had. We have to learn to let go of our pride and our fear and start to put our trust in the people around us and the power of the universe. Everything will work itself out eventually -- just do yourself a favor and reach out for a helping hand along the way.
