Maybe it was me overreacting. Maybe it was just the amount of small little things piling up. Maybe it was the fact that I wasn't sleeping enough and falling back into an old, ragged routine. Maybe it was just me still getting used to changes. Maybe it was some combination of all of the above, but I recently hit a pretty low mood for several days and let me say that, while I'm not super proud of it, I would definitely call it a "sad country music" mood.

In the course of a couple of days, I had some work stuff, some family stuff, and some relationship stuff come up, all of which felt like a very big deal at the time. I was honestly a little bit wrecked, although I did my best not to let anybody know that. I found out pretty quickly that this was going to be a bigger deal than I wanted to let it be. I tried to pep myself up by listening to happier music, but it was more of a slap in the face than a cheerful pick-me-up. I took the next logical step: I decided to wallow in my bad/sad mood and see if that helped. And that 's when I discovered that I hav a "sad country music" mood.

It isn't pretty. It involves crying and thinking and wallowing and, of course, listening to sad country music. But I can honestly say that it did make me feel better after. Or if not better, then at least it made it easier to deal with. I listen to a lot of music during my day — when I'm walking to class, when I'm walking home, when I'm reading, when I'm doing homework, when I'm doing any other kind of work. I get a lot of time to just enjoy whatever I choose to listen to. And, for about two days, the only thing I felt like listening to was sad country songs.

For anyone who is familiar with the genre, you know that on a normal, happy day, these are the kinds of songs that would tear your heart out but it's okay because that hurts less than letting it bleed inside of your chest. But on those two particular days, when I didn't really know what else to do to make myself feel better, I found them oddly comforting. Maybe it was because they related to my mood so well. Maybe it was because they reminded me of home. Maybe it was because I don't have a specific memory attachment to any of them, so I could remember (or not) at my own leisure.

I'm not sure if I can report that they actually got me out of my mood, but I can definitely say that they didn't hurt and maybe even made me feel a little bit better in the process. So if you ever find yourself in a "sad country music" mood, hang in there and don't feel bad about taking some time to just listen to some sad jams. You'll feel much better, I promise!