Something that has almost become my catchphrase is making an appearance in other’s lives- my friends, my coworkers, even my mom is saying it. This saying has gotten me through a lot of hard times (which we all are more than familiar with, given the past two years). That phrase is, “It’s not that deep.” Or, depending on how Southern you are, “It ain’t that deep” (I’m from Atlanta, sue me.)
This phrase is good for when you’ve wrapped yourself up too much with excess worries until you literally can’t even think straight. Of course, you need to give yourself time to think and process, but not everything is worth stressing over to the moon and back.
Failing a test is not that deep, just don’t make it a habit. Double-texting a crush is not that deep. Chances are, seeing two texts from you would make them smile. Leaving a social situation where you feel like you both talked too much or not enough is not that deep. It’s impossible for people to remember every little detail.
Life is too short to be caught up in trivial things like that. Will you remember it in a week? In a month? Will it even matter next year? Probably not.
However, this is not a catch-all. Sometimes, it can be that deep. And, there are different levels to the deepness. There is muddy-puddle deep, where your feet can be stuck for a second, but it ends up being easy to pull them out. There is ankle-deep, where it’s enough to throw you off balance, but you can step out of it if you need to. There is also over-the-head deep, where nothing seems to go right and it feels like drowning. It may be horrible, but it is never going to be for too long; the water will recede in the end.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that using, “It’s not that deep” is great for small things. But, if something seems important to you- even if it’s only muddy-puddle deep- then you should allow yourself to feel it. It’ll only get better from there.