I recently wrote a short story for my fiction class. This story was written in two distinct parts. The first part is about feeling big, which is a metaphor for feeling positive, happy, loved, surrounded by friends, etc. The second part is the exact opposite. It talks about being small, which is a metaphor for depression. The small feeling is indescribable. I bold the word bad to emphasize how it feels to be small or depressed.
At first, I was nervous for my classmates to workshop and critique my story. While it is fiction, it still feels very raw and personal. I did not expect my classmates to react how they did.
Most of the comments were about how relatable the story was. I wrote this story because I feel like I have days that are sometimes opposites, and I felt alone in that aspect. So, when my classmates all said they could relate to this story, it made me feel validated.
After talking to a few of my friends, I realized that we are all feeling the same way. Everyone has good days, and everyone has bad days. Even though we might feel alone in our emotions, there is something comforting about knowing that we are not alone in feeling that way.
Between a tight college class schedule, work, extracurricular activities, and internships, there is a lot of stress that can be added to our plates. Having bad days makes the things we love feel like a lot of extra work. We lose our motivation and become burnt out.
But here is what I’ve learned. Take the time to feel what you are feeling. It is so much harder to persevere when your mind is clouded with negative thoughts or just overcrowded in general. Take time to clear your head and get in the right mind space before you start what you need to. It isn’t always easy to stay positive, so what do I do if I wake up and it’s a bad day? I add a post-it note to my wall. It says the same thing every time. Life is tough, but so am I. Because sometimes, we just need that friendly reminder.
This is yours. Life is tough, but so are you. Keep going.