I am a huge advocate of a good cry. Crying can be an amazing way to release pent up emotions and also a great way to relieve stress. These days, I find myself crying at the most random moments. Just the other day I started thinking about coffee (a regular subject of thought for me) which led me to thinking about Starbucks. Soon I began to think about late night study groups at Starbucks with my best friend which also got me thinking about New York City and aspects that I missed of my life back home. Next thing I knew, I was crying. Who would have thought that thinking about coffee would be such a slippery slope.
I continued crying while simultaneously thinking about how different my life back home is from my life at Williams. I wasn’t crying because I was necessarily sad or angry at any aspect Williams lacked that NYC had, I just needed to allow myself the opportunity to feel and think.
I didn’t even know that I needed that cry. Since getting to Williams my life has gotten significantly busier thanks to the workload from my classes. That cry gave me a moment to pause and think about what I was missing but also gave me a moment to reflect on my time here at Williams thus far. I came to realize that I was moving very quickly between assignments and extracurriculars and not taking enough time to truly be with myself. I realized how much I miss my friends and my family and my dog. However, I also realized that I am truly beginning to acclimate to this new environment. While it feels as though I have been on campus for a very long time, I realized that it has only been a little over a month and that I still have a lot of time to make this campus a place I love.
All these revelations came to me just by allowing myself to be vulnerable and in tune with my head and heart. I was grateful that I allowed myself the chance to do that. I am a person that is always moving and rarely pauses to check in with my emotions. It is very easy for me to push thoughts into a “later pile” in my head which often leads to a flood of ideas and worries by the end of the day. This experience has encouraged me to take more moments for myself and seriously allow myself to feel things in real time so that they don’t all hit me like a truck at one moment.
I hope that this piece has encouraged you to check in with yourself more often and be open to vulnerability. While crying is often considered to be a display of weakness, that could not be further from the truth. It takes a lot of courage to check in with yourself and accept that everything is not perfect. While it may be tempting to hide behind a mask and pretend like everything’s okay, that facade can only go on for so long. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being in touch with your emotions and taking time to truly grapple with them. Your feelings are valuable, so make sure you are listening to them.