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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at MSU chapter.

If I may paraphrase my favorite Lorde lyric, I’m 19, and the world is on fire. We are on the brink of what many believe is the beginning of the third World War, a deadly virus practically wiped off 3 years of normalcy, I left one politically divided country only to enter another, and unrest has become unsurprising to me. I craved a chaotic, adventurous teen life, but as my teens are almost over, I wish that I hadn’t. I hate how I have become indifferent to the ills of this world, and I feel myself losing my optimism with each news article that I read. I see the world and express my emotions in colors: what was once yellow is blue now and I can feel it morphing into a dull gray. I want to scream at the sky and hurl myself at the ground, but what difference would it even make?

I sigh, how vain must I be to make the world’s problems about me when millions suffer across the globe? My whims are irrelevant to the world, but they’re all I can think about. I obsess over all that went wrong and fantasize about what could have been. 

Does that make things better? If I’m going to be honest with you, no it doesn’t. 

The fact that there are others around the world who are going through the same thing as me, comforts me, and on most days, comfort is all I need. On the days when comfort doesn’t suffice, I write. Like today, I’m on a flight back from my family’s comforting presence to my single room that I have learned to call home. A room that I decorated by myself, for myself; a place where I exist without judgment. 

Independence, something that was alien to me once, is a necessity for me now and every day. I teach myself gratitude and love for the life I live. I stand in front of the mirror and talk to myself, creepy, isn’t it? But the words I say stick with me. I tell myself to enjoy the opportunities I’m so fortunate to have, learn from the mistakes I make, love the people around me, and help whenever I can, because the world could use some help right now. 

Does that make things better? Well, it doesn’t stop wars, but it eases my mind, and if I’m going to be honest with you, that’s enough.

Shrishti is an Economics major who is a little obsessed with chai, sitcoms, and the color turquoise. While she regrets growing out of her bookworm lifestyle, Shrishti enjoys the occasional work of fiction especially when it is accompanied by a warm cup of her mother's filter coffee. She is a proud feminist and is always open to learning about how she can make her activism more intersectional. In her free time, Shrishti can be found dancing around her room to either Taylor Swift or early 2000s Bollywood music, or sometimes even a weird combination of the two.