Things Will Only Get Better If You Stick Around For It

Joel Sossa
Joel Sossa

Hi there.

We’ve never met, but I feel like on some level, I do know you. Like maybe somewhere in a past life, we were schoolyard pals and I got in trouble for bossing you around a little too much. And here I am, still giving you unsolicited advice. Here I am, still trying to convince you of something you’re not sure you want. I’m sorry, I should learn to stay in my own lane.

But not right now.

I know things have been extra hard for you lately. There’s a heaviness that weighs on your chest when you wake up. You feel like Atlas, holding up a sky that you didn’t ask for. You’ve been wondering if it’s worth it, like no one really understands what you’re going through or how you feel. And you know what? Maybe they don’t. We can’t expect others to ever fully know what we’re experiencing; it’s impossible.

But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to. That doesn’t mean they aren’t waiting to help, if you ask them to.

You can’t see that right now. You’re too focused on the pain and the hurt; I get it. The light at the end of the tunnel everyone has promised hasn’t appeared and you’re afraid it never will. Everything is too dark. Everything is too out of reach.

But here’s the thing, the light might be just around the corner. The light might be at an angle that isn’t visible to you at this moment in time. But if you stop driving, you’ll never find it. If you pull over on the side of the road, I promise, that light will never show up. You have to continue navigating. You have to keep your foot on the pedal.

Trust me, the waiting is one of the harder parts. Life has a tendency to feel like whatever is currently happening is all that will ever happen. Think back to when you were 13 or 14. Everything seemed forever. The embarrassing moment in school would haunt you FOREVER, you just knew it. But it passed. It faded. And before you knew it, it became a story you told with laughter. It became just another part of your story.

Your story is constantly being written and rewritten. There are chapters that will suck so hard. And that’s not poetic or encouraging, but it’s the truth. Not everything you go through will come with a silver lining. Sometimes, things are just shitty. But you flush that toilet and keep going.

arieastman
arieastman

Right now, you’re wishing you had that remote control like in that (strangely emotional) Adam Sandler film. You want to just fast forward this part. You want to skip right to the good stuff. If I knew how, I’d help you do it. Because the good stuff is just so sweet.

But there is no way there except to get through this. In order for things to get better, you have to stick around. You have to keep fighting. You have to keep choosing life. You have to keep choosing yourself.

I promise, this world is not always kind, but at least you can be kind to yourself. You can give yourself a chance. You can give yourself the world. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

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✨ real(ly not) chill. poet. writer. mental health activist. mama shark. ✨

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