An Open Letter To Me When I'm Stressed Out

Dear "Stressed Out Me",

People always ask you why you chose your school and what you're planning to do with your life. It's funny, right? Apparently, after your senior year of high school, you're expected to have it all figured out.

You always say the same thing: you're majoring in neuroscience and you're pre-med. But the truth is... At this precise moment in your life, you don't really know what you're doing. You go to classes, eat, do homework, shower, go to bed. That's your day. What are you working for? What's your "why"?

You could tell yourself that you have plenty of time to figure that out, but you really don't. You're halfway through your first semester, you have to start planning your second semester soon, then you're a sophomore, and then your sophomore year is coming to an end and you have to declare a major. That's a blink of an eye. Not to mention that you have to join clubs and get club board positions and if you're pre-med, you should probably get hours volunteering at a hospital and you should get an internship somewhere doing something. I don't even know how one can have time for any of this when thinking about all you have to do takes up so much time already.

Did I mention socializing? You have to make friends now too because you're in a completely different environment than home and doing all of this without a friend is practically impossible unless you're very stable in who you are, which you're obviously not. You are 18 years old, how can you possibly have your life planned out when you literally cannot even help your friends make outfit decisions because it's too much pressure?

Well, kid, they say "fake 'til you make it", so you should just do that. If you keep telling yourself that your life is all put together, your life will eventually be together. Everything in life has a transition stage. I mean, you can't go from a 3'5" child to a 5'7" god without the braces and weird feathered hair, the same way that a cup of ice doesn't go straight to a cup of liquid water-- you need the awkward ice water stage first.

So yeah, I guess life is crazy right now and it's hard to sit and think about all the things that need to be done. But, you really are just a first-semester freshman in college. No one actually expects you to have your life together. If you keep taking it one day at a time, eventually you will have completed all the things on your checklist.

Think about all you've learned in your short amount of time in college so far. It doesn't even have to be in class, it could just be in adulting. A month in and so much has changed for the better already. I bet you haven't even taken a course in the field you intend to study because you're getting your gen-eds done.

So note to self... RELAX!

You've got some time, take a breath. Don't stress too much. Take it one day at a time, and most importantly... "Fake it 'till you make it."

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