For so long, stress was my middle name. No matter what it was, I would stress about it. School. Work. Food. Relationships. You name it and I stressed about it. What makes stressing so appealing, I think, is that it allows you to exert a certain control over a situation. You feel as though you are able to make a certain outcome possible by stressing over something or a situation, even though this is not true. Even though I stressed over every aspect of my life, there were still times when things just wouldn't go my way.

One aspect of my life that I stressed over often was school. Yes, school is very important and my grades matter to me. However, it got to the point where I would constantly obsess over my grades, checking them multiple times a day to see if a teacher had put in a new assignment grade. While this may be normal when you are waiting for a large assignment to be put into the grade book, it is not okay to do this every day. Checking my grades often only worsened my obsession with school. It consumed my life.

What helped me get over stressing about every detail of my life was realizing that stress does not produce better outcomes. Even if I stress all night and day about an upcoming test, I am not going to do any better. In fact, I may do even worse for the mere fact that I used my time to stress rather than to study or give myself a break. It is so important to recognize that stressing about situations will not make that situation any better. That time is better used elsewhere.

Although school may seem like a good reason to stress, I know that school did not actually cause the stress. Even when I was not going to school, I would always find something to stress about. It didn't matter what it was, it only mattered that I had something that I was able to stress about.

After recognizing the fact that stress doesn't help a situation, I have been able to stress much less about aspects of my life. Yes, I still stress sometimes, but not nearly as much as I did before. I feel free from the shackles that once held me down and brush off most things that once would have stressed me for days. With this new perspective, I feel ready to take on this world as a new person!