Category: Life

  • How To Not Be Terrified Of Leaving Home

    How To Not Be Terrified Of Leaving Home

    School made life autonomous. When you go through 12 years of grade school it’s all the same. I can say that as someone who hated all 12 years of grade school and also pre-k. After barely surviving hormonal hell (high school), I’m ready for a change. I’m ready for college!

    I am an unreliable narrator. I am not ready for college.

    While I am exhausted of high school and the town I’m in, I’m nervous for college. I take the saying “the devil you know” (Sinners reference) very seriously. Part of my anxious brain wants to stay and be one of those losers that peaked in high school. Except it would be extra pathetic because I wasn’t fun and I didn’t have fun in high school. I’m not particularly easy to make quick friends with.

    this photo isn’t too big because it’s me my first day of high school,

    While that sounds like a sad little life I’m willing to live, leaving for college is necessary. I need space. Todays post is about helping me cope about the fact that I’ll be leaving.

    These are my college goals.

    1. I Want To Join The Newspaper (Maybe Even Become Editor)

    I’m an English major (as of this hour) and I love writing (clearly). I’ve always wanted to join my colleges newspaper, no thanks to Rory Gilmore. Even though she’s an awful person to look up to, academically she’s a good inspiration.

    my sophomore year yearbook staff photo

    I also did my high school’s yearbook (that’s a rant for another day) which surprisingly didn’t discourage me. Being editor made me remember how much I loved writing and really heightened my love for bossing people around.

    2. Dorming Like A True American

    Part of the true American experience is dorming at your college and not living with 3 generations until you die. I have been counting down the days until I move out since I was nine, when the sparkle in my eyes first started disappearing.

    I am the first in my family to move away for college. My mom went to Valencia, UCF and FAMU Law which are all in Orlando and my aunt went to Valencia and UCF. Moving down to Miami seemed scary at first but when I went to orientation that was it. I was leaving.

    The campus and city energy just felt right.

    me in brickell!

    3. Freedom!!

    This one is actually a part of my worries. I am worried that because I have such freedom I will get lazy or that I’ll let a negative mindset win me over. I have a lot of things I really want for myself. I want to work, I want to eventually join the honors college, and I want to be a much harder worker than I was in high school. This requires self discipline.

    I’ve always struggled with self discipline, I have a very “It’ll work itself out!” mindset which has caused me way too much stress. So, to combat this I decided to fix a couple things in my daily month to reset my mindset for this last month of summer.

    First, I need to walk everyday because the campus is huge and I don’t want to have cramps in my legs every night because they can’t handle it.

    Second, forcing myself to use my planner. I usually keep good track of things in my head but this is the organized way.

    proof of organization

    Third, making sure my room stays clean. A trigger for my depression and psychosis can be a messy room so keeping it clean helps on multiple accounts.

    Finally, fixing my sleep schedule. No more 2 am tik tok, from now on I get at least 8 hours, best case scenario, I’m getting a women’s 10 hours by the end of the month.

    I’ve started each of these at different points during July, but it’s mostly been two weeks since I started and I feel amazing. I could also just be manic.

    4. Esports Club

    My brothers have always been handed video games right to them. For me it was assumed I didn’t want any of it because I was a girl. It was mostly my dads fault for the unfair treatment, but partially just plain patriarchy because I was embarrassed to say I wanted to get into video games.

    By my junior year, I want to join the Competitive Smash Bros team, until then I will join the casual gaming club, the Esports club, and the GameHers (all female gaming club).

    Me as Luigi and my brother as Mario my first Megacon! Mario is one of my favorite video game franchises.

    I really want to expand my video game knowledge.

    Me finding the Valve, specifically the Portal 2, section at Megacon this year. Portal 2 is my favorite video game ever. I also love Valve and all their games! Maybe one day they count to three…

    5. Finally Learn How to…

    I have been trying and failing (due to self discipline issues) at learning how to skateboard casually for a solid year now. A lot of kids skate around campus and I would love to be able to skate from place to place.

    I also want to re-learn the guitar. This one might be harder to accomplish since I don’t have a guitar yet, only a dream. I believe there’s a way to make it happen though.

    Since I am an English major, I want to get my writing skills to their peak. I am extremely excited to see how my writing style changes throughout college with this blog!

    Fear is now excitement

    Between writing this and orientation, my fear has mostly become excitement. Lucky for me, my roommate is also really sweet and I feel comfortable experiencing freshman year with her.

    This is a new adventure a lot of kids my age face as well so I know I’m not alone.

    If you too are scared for college or moving away or even the future, try not to let it take you. I was gonna end this with advice about being scared but I have none so just try not to be!

  • “Get To The Part Where You’re Anxious!”- my depression probably

    “Get To The Part Where You’re Anxious!”- my depression probably

    I’m sensitive. “Hi Sensitive I’m Dad!”

    Okay but actually I’m sensitive. It doesn’t take much for me to start crying or feel an extreme wave of anxiety. For years I didn’t know how to manage it. I just let it take me and win. I would spend hours to days in bed just rotting away because my heart didn’t feel right yet.

    Today is different though. This is because I went through a rough stage of psychosis from late January to about Mid-June. After that ended, I just wanted to be better.

    Medicaid is some garbage because the United States is some garbage. Getting medicine or good help wasn’t really an option. This means I need to learn how to live with myself just the way I am until medication is a possibility.

    meaf

    Today:

    Today was not a good day. I got bad sleep (don’t drink delicious latte at 5 pm) and had a bad start to my day so I’ve been off all day. I was especially off at work and I kept messing up which gave me anxiety which messed me up more.

    sleep thief.

    So after my non-ideal morning to mid-afternoon, I found out some information. This was just information that made me realize I am perceived. This is because I’m a thing that exists so people have this stupid ability to think about me. I literally hate it.

    From this moment forward, I had to options, sulk and not sulk. I cried trying to pick.

    Part of me was trying to convince myself I didn’t care. The other part was trying to understand why I cared so much. I can’t change how people think of me.

    Small things like this can really trigger a depressive episode. It starts with anxiety that leads to overthinking that leads to mean thoughts that leads to me crying that leads to time being wasted that leads to me feeling hopeless and worthless.

    It feels like all my days are waiting for the next episode. Like my brain waits for me to get anxious to take me down.

    I came to the part in my loop where I thought “I wish I could go back in time.” That one always stings so bad, it makes me so mad that I can’t go back in time and change my behavior. Luckily for me, I’ve been working on myself. I can proudly say I noticed the loop before it overtook me.

    Before immediately going to my awful habits, I looked for some ways to try and regulate my anxiety and worrying.

    I tried grounding. 5 things I saw, 4 things I felt, 3 things I heard, 2 things I smelled, and 1 thing I tasted.

    Poster, flag, hate, decor, calendar. Hand, bed, paper, hot phone. Fan, fabric, “eat the pavement” by dev lemons. The plant-based chicken on my hand, the plant-based chicken in the air. Water.

    That stopped my looped thinking and worry and crying and from there I was able to do a breathing exercise and journal. I gave myself a 10 minute window to worry in my journal and then chose to get up and write my blog post for Sunday.

    Brag:

    I was obviously very proud of myself so I came to brag to the internet that I’m doing better. Maybe the Medicaid didn’t help and definitely made things worse, but I was able to help myself. And while this probably won’t always work, I’m glad it did this time because I almost crashed.

    I really have been trying to work on myself and better myself since my last depressive episode. Starting this blog was a very big step and something an insecure Connie would have never done. I think that’s why I love the Backrooms so much. When I first watched it, it felt like my mind during my psychosis.

    backrooms 4th time: extended cut
    backrooms 2nd time
    backrooms 3rd time
    backrooms 1st time
    backrooms wallpaper
    backrooms nails (i did have these for like three weeks)

    I don’t like to talk about my mental health because of a lot of reasons. But, I’m trying to be more open and without shame for being who I am. It’s held me back in more ways that just my mental health. So no more shame, and no more letting my anxiety dictate me.

    I sound like a medicinal ad. “Choose Lexapro…choose…you!” That’s no shade to Lexapro though, that’s my future.