Everyone has a bad day or two every once in a while. Nothing some sleep and eating some fast food and ice cream can't fix, right? But what happens when this bad day turns into days? Weeks? Months?

One starts to realize that ice cream and sleeping isn't the solution. I know that was what I began to realize. No matter how much sleep I got or how much ice cream I ate, no matter the number of people I surrounded myself with; that knot in my stomach, the ache in my heart, the feeling of nothing, persisted.

In all honesty, if you've ever met me, I'm a bubbly, kind person. I'm always smiling and joking around with my friends. But as soon as I'm alone, that mask comes off and I'm left in the mist. What is the mist you may ask? Well, have you ever been out when it's not particularly raining so you don't need an umbrella and it's not necessarily sprinkling so you don't need a rain jacket and there's just a mist and you're bare? It's foggy, you feel that mist on your skin but there's not any water to wipe from your bare arm or face? Or if you wear glasses, it just fogs your vision for a bit? That's what being in the mist is like. Your life and values are foggy, you don't know where you fit in, you question your worth.

When you're around others, you're bare. You're "yourself", or try to be that person you use to be. Because you don't want others to see how truly broken you are inside and you want to try to continue to tell yourself that you're alright. Being in the mist is a maze with no easy way out.

In high school, I was in the mist for quite some time up until I joined the dance team. It was a place I never wanted to go back to. Unfortunately, as soon as I transferred to A&M my sophomore year, I found myself back in this maze. Keeping my grades up, trying to make new friends, making my parents proud, being in a sorority, dealing with boys, it all just piled up. I tried to push it to the back of my mind because I didn't want to fall as deep as I did before. But doing this was the worst thing I could do because I landed in a darker place.

It's scary really. Because I could be having a really good day but one minor inconvenience and everything else is in shambles. I try to push myself to be around people that make me happy, go work out, anything that will distract me or help me out of the mist so that I can become a better version of who I was before being this lost.

That's ultimately why I began writing for Odyssey. Writing is my outlet and I feel like by letting others know that they're not alone in this mist, it will help me find my way out. It's alright to feel lost sometimes, just know that when mist starts to clear up and you see the sun peak through the end of that maze, you'll feel that warmth within yourself.