It's inevitable: the cycle of happiness to suffering. You can't be happy forever and contrary to some beliefs, you can't suffer forever either. As a Buddhist born and raised, I was always taught that suffering comes from desiring. With a lack of role models growing up, here is what I found through education and self-experiences. I wish someone would've told me. If there was one message that I could pass on to anyone, it would be this. From me to you:

I realized that desiring is incredibly conventional/natural. It's just as inevitable as the cycle of mood swings in life. Suffering ends when you stop desiring and in order for that to happen; become a monk. Until then, here is my formula paired with a little story for balancing your life.

The truth is, there is no balance. Sometimes, life decides it's going to sucker punch you in the face and stab you a million times in the gut to make sure you really feel it in all the right places. But maybe some days it'll choose to give you a kiss you on the cheek and wake you with a stack of fresh, stacked pancakes in bed (if we lived in my heaven). If there's one thing I learned throughout my mere eighteen years of life, it's that it doesn't matter what life throws at you, what really matters at the end of the day is what you've done with it.

It depends, they say. "They" being the ones who understand the importance of grieving. They're right, I'm thankful for this discovery but I hope you still find a way to get out of bed every morning and start living again. I hope you find yourself in a situation like this and use it to your advantage. I hope you wake up every morning knowing it's a new day, the past is past, the now is here and the future is so far ahead of you.

I hope you find eternal recurrence. I hope you hear your heart beating and I hope you choose to impact the world in a positive way with all your gifts. I hope you find it's not so easy to let go, but you do it anyways. I hope you live by one of my favorite artists, Washed Out, and do like Amor Fati.

At the end of the day, I hope you feel your existence in the deepest form. I hope you feel every emotion so hard that you become grounded and more aware of your own presence in this world. I hope you possess the ability to gain more knowledge and experiences as life drifts onward.

All in all, I hope that when life throws you lemonade, you accept it but you don't just make lemonade. You make a lemon zest for a meringue pie and do like Beyonce. This quote stood out to me my senior year in High School by Jeanette Walls who quoted her mother in The Glass Castle, "It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it it's beauty." I wish someone would've told me that while growing up.