One midterm, two term papers, a presentation, three quizzes, hundreds of pages of readings. College work piles up. Not to mention the stresses of daily life – interviews, club meetings, applications, rehearsals. Some weeks, college seems like a hurricane. A swirling mass of due dates, online assignments and office hours, with torrential downpours of papers and unsatisfactory grades.
If college is a hurricane, then gratitude is the eye.
A moment of stillness. When the negative is replaced with positive reflections on the good. When, for just a moment, we breathe a sigh of relief, not of the corrupted air of stress, but of the fresh atmosphere of gratefulness. We remember our blessings and forget our worries.
Eventually, the moment passes, but not without taking with it our feelings of hopelessness.
This week, I am grateful for the eye of the storm and for gratitude itself because I will always have the power to halt negativity in its tracks with the strength of my mind. I can always turn to my blessings for solace, for comfort and for encouragement. Stress, self-deprecation and even existential crises can never take this away from me. I can always find the eye in any storm by the power of my own conviction and my own love.
In the midst of the most intense personal natural disasters, seek the calm. Make a gratitude journal. Take deep breaths. Slow the tumultuous roll of your thoughts. And repeat this mantra:
There is good.