Sunrise. Sunset. Sunrise. Sunset. Sunrise. Sun-

You get the picture.

Life is a cycle. Each one of our days starts with a sunrise and ends with a sunset. That can seem like a monotonous revolution or it can be a hopeful promise. Some days can be pretty awful, but the crappy days are just a sunset away from ending; better days are just around the corner from a sunrise. Now, true, sometimes the awfulness lingers throughout multiple days, but each sunrise is a reminder that we survived another day. It is a testament that we have outlasted the bad and we are a day further away from the tragedies that happened. Those tragedies are in the past; they were put to rest by the sunset, and the sunrise has brought us away from them.

Lately, there have been some days that have been bringing me down. My life is not going the way I had thought it would. I entered my first semester of college with high hopes; I think I was naive about a lot of things as I walked into adulthood. I was not completely closed to the fact that adult life would not be all sunshine and roses, but . . . is it really this much of a struggle for everyone?! I was struggling with classes, I still was not conquering my time management troubles, work was not going great, I was procrastinating with projects at home, and I was not keeping up a strong social life. But I kept my head up for the most part. I pepped myself up every morning and I convinced myself that I could adult and that I could adult well.

Then I took my car to get washed . . .

I bought my first car back in April. My family has never been super active on taking our cars to the car wash consistently. We only really do it every four to five months or so; other times, we just wash our cars at home. Anyways, when it came time for my car to get washed for the first time since being purchased, I was actually out of town; thankfully, my sweet mom took my car in for me. But this past week, my car was in desperate need for a detailed wash and it was my turn to drive to the car wash.

As I drove off towards the car wash, I actually started to panic a bit. There I was, an eighteen-year-old, nearly hyperventilating as I realized I had never, ever driven a car through a car wash on my own. Sure, I had ridden passenger through countless car washes, but I had never gone to one by myself. I called my mother and asked her what all I needed to do; she prepped me and I suddenly felt better. My anxiety had caused me to overreact, but once I told myself that I was a capable young adult who could most definitely go through a car wash on her own, everything seemed fine. I mellowed out and proceeded to complete the task at hand.

I pulled up to the car wash and things seemed to go off without a hitch! I paid, I had even remembered to remove my antenna and pull in my rearview mirrors, I pulled into the car wash properly, and I followed the attendant's instructions perfectly. As my car was slowly pulled through the wash, I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Then I heard a dripping sound; I slowly looked around and did not see anything out of the ordinary. But then I looked up.

In prepping my car to be washed, I had somehow completely forgotten that my car has a sunroof. More importantly, I had forgotten to check and see if it was closed all the way . . . it wasn't.

Soap and foam dripped and poured profusely into my car. At one point, it came through with such force that it ended up spraying me in the face and getting on my sweater. After the wash was through, I pulled around the vacuums and removed all the excess liquid; I successfully cleaned everything up, but I felt so idiotic. I must not be capable at adulting if I cannot even handle a simple car wash, right?! I started thinking of all the other times I had recently failed at being a successful adult, and this feeling of failure stuck with me all day.

But that night, I saw a gorgeous sunset, which is one of my favorite sights in all of nature. As I admired the breath-taking beauty of the evening sky, I began to see a sunset as more than a daily norm, but as a promised end to every single day. Every crappy that happened that day was soon to be in the past, never to be relived again. A sunrise, a new day, was just around the corner and that put a smile on my face. One of my favorite scriptures, Psalm 30:5, came to mind: "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." I knew the hardships of that day were going to try and follow me into the next, but I was not going to let that happen. The things that brought me down that afternoon were put to rest by the sunset. The sunrise was coming, ushering in a brand new day, free from previous mistakes.

So whatever you are going through, just remember that a new day is just around the corner! Look for your sunrise!