"As sad as it is, the world won't stop moving just because you're depressed. It's going to keep moving, you gotta move with it. Find a hobby, distract yourself. Stop thinking about it [the situation at hand]. You can't let yourself fall behind. Life won't stop moving just because you're sad."

I was told this by someone near and dear to my heart in a very heated 'discussion', if you want to call it that. Those weren't the exact words I was told, the memory of this event is beyond faded, as well as blocked out due to the nature of the conversation. Those words struck a chord in my heart. Hearing them come out of the person's mouth utterly destroyed me at the time. It wasn't the first time I was told something along the lines of that, either. I was told this time and time again throughout 2016. For some reason though, hearing these words flow soothingly from this person's mouth finally made sense. They weren't spoken with venom, or any ounce of hatred as a matter of fact. They were spoken with every ounce of care in the world, which was strange because of the nature of the conversation just moments before that. It took me until now, weeks after they said this to me, to finally realize the truth behind those words. Life keeps moving, everyone gets up and goes about their day regardless of what happened to me earlier that day. At the end of the day, I'm not my depression. I'm a person and I can't let a simple chemical imbalance alter my daily life.

During the beginning of my fall semester, I was enrolled in Digital Photography. I was extremely excited for the course; I've always loved photography. Though, once the course began... the work started piling up. At the time, not only did I need to find time to take 100+ photos a week, I had to also balance my job, a budding social life, and my other course work as well. I let the stress get to me and I collapsed. I began missing classes, my grade looked horrendous. So what did I do? I took the easy route out and withdrew from the course, wasting close to $500 some dollars on a camera. I spent the week or so freaking out. The stress load kept me awake at night. I was missing classes, calling out of work, and nagging to anyone that would listen. Slowly I realized, this is my fault. I let the stress get to me. Pin-pointing the blame on myself freed me, I realized that I can't blame anyone else but myself. Once you accept you messed up, you can finally move on and learn what you need to fix. I realized then that I need to pay closer attention to deadlines and what's expected of me. Put school before my social life and focus on my GPA before my friend count. What price did I pay for this? I'm now 3 credits behind from graduating. But at the end of the day, it's my fault. I accept that and now I'm more motivated to move ahead. The world didn't stop for me just because I was stressed out. My professor didn't stop everything to ensure I was okay, she continued about her day. As I was wallowing in denial, trying to blame everyone but me, everyone moved on. I too, had to move on. I got up and went about my life.

At the beginning of November, my heart was broken from someone I never thought would hurt me. At that time, my life slowly crumbled down before me. I stood and watched as it all fell, slow and steady, but then faster than the speed of light. I let the sadness I experienced overwhelm me. I wore the title, "the girl with the broken heart" on my sleeve. I missed 3 out of 4 class days that week. I stayed and bed and cried myself out. I didn't do any class work, I slipped behind on my orders at work. I let everything overtake me. I messaged everyone who would listen nonstop during the day. I called everyone I felt close to. I became the same broken record with no way to turn it off. Sure, everyone listened and did all they could to help me. But after awhile, they grew tired of hearing the same spiel over and over. Did they listen still, of course. Did they still care, of course not. I don't blame them, either. After a while, it's time to get up and move on. I couldn't always be the girl with the broken heart. That title only lasts for a certain amount of time. Did they tell me that? No, you never tell someone that. You wait for them to discover that. The world keeps moving, and so do I. Just because a single person made a mistake which hurts me, doesn't mean my world was over. It's a chance for me to learn and grow from it. Become stronger than who I once was. And learning and growing was exactly what I did.

As sad as it is, I couldn't learn this lesson alone. It took a single person whom I love dearly to teach me this. At the end of the day, it rings more truth than any other lesson I've been taught before.

I am not a stressed out college student. I'm not a girl who got her heart broken. I'm not a girl with depression.

I'm Amber. I'm a nineteen year old college student. I'm an employee at a supermarket, making money to pay for college. I'm a kind, compassionate person. I'm a person who laughs at bad puns, who also makes them. I'm a person who will always help people at, the best I can. I'm the friend who calls you late at night to talk, just because I miss you. I'm a future journalist who has my eyes set on the world.

I am a person, I'm not a chemical imbalance.

And at the end of the day, I will get up and keep moving with life, because life will not stop for me. Life will not stop for anyone. The earlier you learn this, the stronger you become.