Life is hard. Life is stressful… sort of.

I never understood how some people could sit up so late at night crying over exams and papers. I know I joked many times in my life about how I had done the same, but when I look back at the last few years, I think it has actually only happened about twice. When I came to college, sure, my classes were most certainly hard, but I looked at some of the friends I was making and how they’d break out in acne and have meltdowns over the amount of stress they were under.

And there are sometimes things very much out of our control, but I started looking as to why things got so stressful for some people. I couldn’t understand why I was left out of this all-inclusive club of tears, sweat, and apparently blood. What I found, or discovered about myself was rather interesting.

My sophomore year is the last year I can distinctly remember having a full out panic attack over school. I had pulled an all-nighter for a worksheet that the teacher never ending up taking for a grade. I think for me this was the turning point. I realized that there were things in life that did not need to be stressed over. While, of course, you should work your hardest in school, some things just aren’t worth your mental health.

I decided to make a change in my life because of this. I decided to no longer allow things to stress me out. It was all about my mindset. If I didn’t let things bother me and didn’t worry about things, I found that I ended up having a much better experience throughout high school. I didn’t let things like a grade point average or a test ruin how I approached life in general and allowed myself to know that I was and am so much more than just the numbers on my report card.

When I came to college, people told me how stressed I would be, but I found myself without any anxiety. There was definitely the fear of making friends and what my classes would be like, but I couldn’t dwell on those. I had to focus on what I wanted, why, and how I’d get there. I cleared my mind and just let myself live life.

I think the biggest thing about stress is that over half of it is created ourselves. We create our own stress by dwelling on things that don’t need to be. If we allow ourselves to just let go of those little things and focus on what’s important in life, a lot of our stress disappears.

Like I said, life is hard. There is so much out of our control, but whether or not we let that affect us is a choice and so is the mindset that comes into play. I didn’t have a straight shot into college. I had friend troubles, class troubles, and got homesick. But I tried my hardest to ensure that I remained positive, and that I looked at all of my opportunities and abilities. I knew and know what I am capable of, and I let that dictate how I approached life.

As soon as we let stress take over, we start to lose sight of what we truly want. If we approach life with a sense of vulnerability in how things are sometimes out of our control, but a foundation in knowing who we are as a person and who we want to be things become so much easier.

So, I invite you to just breathe with me as we all explore this wonderful journey called life.