The last week has been an emotional rollercoaster. Long story short, I had to say goodbye to a friend a bit earlier than I expected and it made me really sad. Not a permanent goodbye, this is not a morbid story! I went to the east coast over spring break to visit my friend. The plan was to spend a few days with them in their hometown before traveling to Boston with my family.
My friend and I had fun together, but what I thought would be three days together turned out to be only two. We said our goodbyes and I traveled to Boston feeling devastated- my friend is moving out of the country and I don’t know when we’ll get to see each other again.
I spent the next few days moping around Boston. I didn’t want to be a buzzkill to my family, but I was feeling worse and worse throughout the week because of my sadness. I didn’t want to get up in the morning and I barely had an appetite. I’ve experienced this kind of sadness before — I knew I just needed to get through it.
In Boston, one of the major tourist attractions is this path through the city called The Freedom Trail that highlights all of the city’s historic landmarks. My family and I spent one day walking along the trail in the cold weather (cold to us since we’re west coast natives) and stopped at all the sights along the way. The final stop was the Bunker Hill Monument, built to commemorate a battle in the Revolutionary War. The monument is obelisk shaped (like the Washington Monument in DC) and is 210 feet tall, or 294 steps.
You can climb to the top of the monument for free, which did not sound appealing at all, but I talked myself into it- when would I ever have the opportunity again…and the view had to be good. So I trekked up all 294 steps.
Once I made it to the top of the monument, I was sweating, my legs were shaking, and my lungs hurt. (Please don’t judge, I know I’m out of shape!) Boston’s foggy skies did little to improve my mood. On top of it all, my stomach was still twisting with sadness. I thought, this is the worst this can get. My emotional pain, my physical pain, my fears about the pandemic spreading around the world- I just wanted to go home.
But when I got down from the monument embarrassingly out of breath and worried I was about to cough up a lung, my sadness and frustration brought me a moment of clarity. I knew that from that moment on, things would get better. This particular pain will eventually leave and the happy moments will outnumber the ones tinted with sadness.
I know that this particular instance is not entirely relatable, but we all experience trials and tribulations. Some of which we w have already experienced and others we will experiencein the future. In connection to either personal struggles or the global issues we have going on right now; it will get worse, but then it will get better. We just have to make it to the very crux of our struggle before we see the light at the end of the tunnel- or in my case, the last step atop a 210 foot tall tower.