Life is stressful- obviously. As humans in the 21st century, I have found that people often stretch themselves thin. We have chronic cases of FOMO and want to participate in everything and anything. And while we are busy doing the more exciting things, we can often push our responsibilities of things that might stress us out more like work, classes, or relationships.

That stuff can get hard. It's been hard for me to balance things and sometimes I find myself complaining about something hard I'm going through to friends or family and most of the advice I have received recently is simple- give up. Cut and run. Get out. And honestly, I am confused by this mentality. What has caused us to flee at the first sign of things getting hard? Is it our age? Or has our ability as a new society to always look for the short cut or the easy way out made us afraid of ever going through something difficult.

If a class is hard- drop it. If your work load becomes more than you are used to-quit. If you get in a disagreement with a friend- drop them. If your partner becomes distant emotionally or physically- break up with them. These are all things I have been told. This qualifies as good advice in 2016.

Give up the things I have worked really hard for. I didn't care so much about my academics in high school, to get into a great university, just to drop a class of a professor that might push me a little harder than I am accustomed to. I didn't put all my love and care into friendships or relationships just to run at the first sign of hard times for the relationship. I didn't build a writing community at my college to give up on it because it is going through an adjustment period.

I think we have become afraid of challenges. I think it is so easy for us to stay in our comfort zones today maybe more than ever. It is easy to retreat to our rooms, to our phones, to our hometowns, and to our old habits when things change or become hard. There are so many different fantasy worlds we can escape to through the internet and things like Netflix that is easier to dismiss reality than to deal with it.

I'm not going to give up on anything. Especially for the things I worked hard for or for the things I think are important I continue. It might be hard. I might be stressed the majority of the time. But I know the end results and seeing the things I know I'm going to be able to create and do will be worth the struggle.