A typical college day is densely packed with some classes, work where you earn money for car insurance or weekly food adventures, many club activities, and a lot of time reading/writing assignments. You might often wake up to the light of the desk lamp, having no clue when you fell asleep. Tomorrow forces us to keep working hard. You don’t have enough time and energy to process what you learned today in class and to talk to those who you don’t know well. At the end of the day, you feel suffocated because you need to add so many things on your to-do list rather than crossing them out.
On top of it all, at Soka, it’s just hard to believe you’re good enough and to be true to who you are because you are always surrounded by talented and caring people. You feel like you’re just a redundant piece of a puzzle that doesn’t fit in anywhere and that needs to change its shape in order to fit. You unconsciously compare yourself with others all the time, and even a tiny piece of glass hurts your pride and heart.
As many of you probably know, not letting how busy you are occupy your life or faking yourself in order to be accepted, makes you happy. In fact, both can truly hurt you. Of course, we’re busy because we want to learn more, grow more, and enjoy more, but you are the one who takes control of how busy you are. There are so many things you could do, like changing your study place to your favorite café, focusing on doing your best during clubs, and having some time to type or write down your feelings. Everything starts to look different when you change your perspective. Also, your heart sometimes needs to be fed by looking at yourself rather than looking at others. Your experience, your smile, your words, and everything about you is unique. Know who you are and find out what you like about yourself. Self-love is about making yourself feel content by changing your perspective, doing something you like, and having confidence in who you truly are. Self-love is about encouraging yourself to do and be better than who you were yesterday and patting your own back for what you did today.