Typical college life was already hard enough and then our generation got slapped with a pandemic. Most recently, us Texans got hit with an unprecedented winter storm on TOP of this pandemic. As school, work, life, and Valentine’s Day were quickly put on pause, that same hopeless feeling of March 2020 set in. While we have been doing our best to stay safe from ‘Miss Rona’, we still had the bit of freedom to DoorDash comfort food or take an aimless drive. But being snowed-in, left most of us quite literally stuck. It is so easy to let the feeling of being physically stuck, snowball into feeling mentally stuck as well. My fiancé’s favorite accessory is his pair of ‘rose-colored glasses’. While I am laying in bed sadly binging old reruns, he is casually telling me that tomorrow will be a better day.
Spending all these days stuck inside recently has given me invaluable time to sit and absorb my own thoughts and feelings. I have come to the conclusion that it is okay not to have the energy to get out of bed for hours after you wake up. It is okay to cry- a lot. It is okay to be angry and confused. But, at some point, you have to get out of bed. You have to wipe away those tears. You have to let go of your anger to make way for other things. You have to find a way to give yourself hope. You have to put on your own pair of rose-colored glasses and move forward, day by day, moment by moment. We will not be stuck in this forever.