"Take your pain and make it art."

Getting adjusted to college has been kind of hard. With adjusting to new people, a new place to live, not seeing my family every day, and being away from friends I used to see every day, it's been stressful.

Each day, however, I find new ways to cope with stress and anxiety.

Within the past week, I feel like I've struck gold with the quotes that I've found to keep my mental state up.

Over the summer, I read this book called "Reasons To Stay Alive" by Matt Haig. Ever since I read this book, I've been loving this author. I even followed his Instagram, where he posts pictures and updates on his own mental health as well as inspirational quotes and stories that have helped him through a decline in his happiness.

On November 6th, Matt Haig posted an Instagram of a quote that really spoke to me, "Take your pain and make it art."

Ever since I've seen that quote, I put it as my lock screen, and whenever I look at the quote, I remember that all the pain I'm feeling now will be great inspiration for writing in the near future.

"Learn to put your happiness first."

The other quote I found was through the help of my friends. I have a few close friends that I talk to and hang out on a daily basis. They've been there through some pretty tough times this year so far, and it's only November.

With the shit I've been going through, they constantly tell me that I need to put my happiness first and that I need to not make my decisions fully based on how they will affect others. They've told me that I need to do more things to make me happy, and I think I'm finally starting to listen.

Learning to put my own happiness first is something that I'm working on every day and I'm figuring out how to do so with every decision I make.

I put this quote as my home screen. Looking at the quote, I'm constantly reminded that I need to put my mental health first and cut toxic people off, speak my mind and not apologize for it, and do whatever I need to in order to make sure my mental health is good.

These two quotes represent how I aspire to live my life. They remind me to keep going and that it will all be okay.

If you're struggling with your mental health right now, I highly suggest you find two motivational quotes or pictures of things that make you happy, and set them as your phone's home screen and lock screen. Doing this has made me feel so much more inspired and motivated to keep going, and it will do the same for you.