Many people experience times where they are just simply unhappy. It can happen to anyone, even the most joyful of people. It could be a loss, a big change, a hardship, or just a period of stagnation. To these people, day to day life is unimportant and unmoving. Stuck in a place where they are uninvolved with their surroundings, they can be lonely, disconnected, and uncomfortable. They might believe they don’t belong, like they have no friends, nowhere to go, and nothing to turn to.

These people are unsatisfied with where they are in their lives. It’s more than just a passing phase, it’s something they experience every day. It seems impossible to find a fix, and seems as if this problem will never go away. These people might look around at their colleagues, their friends, their co-workers, and experience jealousy. They might think, “These other people are in the same place as I am, so why can’t I be happy like that?” While everyone else is doing well, it is hard to be in a place of such discomfort. These people start to believe that they belong somewhere else with different people in a different place. They want to give up, go far away, do anything to make a change. It's a period of relentless effort and disappointment.

A lot of times this extends further than just simple gloominess. These out-of-place people might not be depressed or completely miserable, but they are not as happy as they should be. They feel stuck, and realize it’s been like this for too long. This extends to not only sadness, but hopelessness. They want to experience something better. These emotions all contribute to a part of life that’s painful, but crucial in the experience of growing as a person. This is what I call one of life's valleys.

Although I’m supposed to be having the best time of my life at college, instead of enjoying it, many times I am just enduring it. I would say I’m simply in one of these valleys. When I was a junior in high school, I went on a hiking trip in the mountains in Colorado for seven days. Many people on this trip had what’s called their “AHA!” moment.

This is where people go: “Wow, I am so blessed to live on this earth. I am a beautiful creation, handmade just like the mountains, the trees, and the flowers. I am even more special and carefully crafted than the world around me. I am built carefully with a unique purpose.” But let me tell you, I didn’t have one of those moments. It was the best trip of my life, and instead of feeling on top of the world, I learned a different lesson. That when we are climbing mountains, hiking through the wilderness, we go through hills and valleys that symbolize the things that we go through in real life.

When you are at your highest point in life, or the highest point on the mountain, you end up looking down right at the beauty of the valleys. You realize they are crucial to where you are standing. The view from the top of the mountain allows us to see that the valleys and the trip up the mountain are the hardest parts, but the best parts. Because we see the low points from the top, we understand the magnificence of the experience itself. You have to go through hard times in order to really appreciate the good times.

Life is full of these mountains and valleys, some higher and lower than others, but they are totally normal. Valleys are simply a part of the challenges you have to face in order to make it to the top of the mountain and when you are on top of the mountain, you will end up appreciating the time you spent in this valley. You spend most of your time in the valleys and little bits of time climbing the mountains, so take advantage of the times where you're on top and don't feel discouraged when you're at the bottom.