College Checkered: Breath. Calm Down. Relax.

Brenda Figueroa
The Paw Print

I know it’s easier said than done, but honestly, you need to. Just settle down. So many of my acquaintances, and even my friends are constantly worried about the future. “What if I don’t have a job,” “what if we don’t work out,” “what if she says no,” “what if I will never be happy,” “what if I never do anything with my life”. That’s the popular one. Worrying that you will be inadequate, and you’ll never fully reach your potential.
We’re all worried about these things. Even people who have the most put together life, and financially don’t have to worry about living paycheck to paycheck are concerned with the future. It’s an obsession of ours. I’m not here to tell you how you can change those concerns, but what I am here to tell you is, breath. Calm down. Relax.
Relaxing doesn’t mean you’re being lazy. It also doesn’t mean that you don’t care or you’re less driven. What it means is, right now you’re in the present, so take things day by day. Not decade to decade. You’re going to panic, and you’re going to make yourself crazy and circle around the notion that you don’t deserve anything better than the crap hole you’re swirling in. This doesn’t help you get out of it. Its quick sand, the more you move the quicker you sink.
Take a moment to adjust yourself. You don’t have to take a day, you can take five minutes. But just take that moment and ease yourself out of your mind. Step back and say to yourself: “okay, I can’t change this tonight, so I’m going to come back to it tomorrow and try again”. This leaves an opportunity for motivation, for self-confidence, for the time to build yourself up instead constantly selling yourself short. You have aspirations, you have dreams, and you have talent. Let the future be by itself for a couple of hours and relax with the present. Regroup yourself. As a friend, that’s all I’m asking from you.