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Cameron Smith-City Skyline Detroit Michigan Girl Overalls Street Buildings Skyscrapers 1
Cameron Smith-City Skyline Detroit Michigan Girl Overalls Street Buildings Skyscrapers 1
Cameron Smith / Her Campus
West Chester | Culture

How My Life At College Is Like A Skyscraper

Rachael Weiser Student Contributor, West Chester University
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at West Chester chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

I really like the song “Skyscraper” by Demi Lovato. I love how the words lift me up, like I am floating. Skyscrapers are high and they seem to touch the sky. When I lived in the city, I saw skyscrapers touch the sky as I craned my neck up on the sidewalk. When it poured outside, the water dripped down from the skyscrapers.

Sometimes, I feel tall and sturdy like a skyscraper. But inside, “my windows still are broken” because I live with unhealed pain. My journey of healing is like a skyscraper: long, complicated, and confusing. 

Many people have tried to break me, “like I’m made of glass, like I’m made of paper,” but each time, I have risen from the ground like a skyscraper. It was difficult to rise from the ground like a skyscraper because skyscrapers take a long time to build. I am still building my skyscraper.

In college, I had to rise from the ground like a skyscraper when I was struggling. I had many issues that arose throughout college. As the smoke has cleared from my past problems, I live with the impacts of its residue. In detail, its residue clings to my lungs, making it hard for me to emotionally breathe. So, I breathe in the warm memories, and I breathe out the bad memories. 

As I walk away from the people who hurt me, I watch them “run, run, run” because they are disappearing from my life, as they fade into the distance, far from where I can see them.

I hope you rise like a skyscraper when people try to break you and tear you down. You deserve to rise above. 

Rachael Weiser

West Chester '26

I am an English major and earning my Global Awareness Pathway Certificate at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. I am an observant, creative, intuitive, open-minded, and compassionate person. I have a passion for all types writing. In 2021, I won the Excellence in Creative Writing Award. In 2020, I won first place for the Mahatma Gandhi Essay Writing Award (Association of Indians South Jersey Chapter. In 2017, I won first place for The Siegelbaum Literary and Visual Arts Competition. I have also had several writing internships.