Finding Strength

The past few weeks have been harder than I thought for some reason.

Truth be told, this is nothing new. My family has had problems my entire life and more so when I started college - during my freshmen year of college, my dad left for about a year.

Yet, I've always managed to hang on somehow. I think that throughout my five-year college experience, if there's one thing I've learned it's that friends will be there for you if and when you allow them to. It takes the bigger man to accept help than to deny it.

I'm an extrovert. All that means is that I get energy when I'm around people, rather than by myself. I deal with things, solve problems when I have others around me. When I'm down, I need to be around my friends. Maybe that's why I'm always at school, as an escape from home. Introverts, on the other hand, like to be in really small groups or by themselves - that's when they are most productive and have the most energy. Some of my friends deal with things by lighting a candle in their bedroom and reading a book.

I've gotten so much support from everyone with comments, hugs, and all that. And all I can say is that I'm very, very grateful and appreciative of it all. The day after I posted the last blog two of my friends sat me down at school and we just talked. It was pretty awesome. It's the small things in life that get you going through it.

My best friends would take me out to help get my mind off things and it helps, it really, really does. I guess the best way to deal with something is not by dealing with it directly, because that makes the problem seem bigger than it needs to be, but rather, indirectly by doing something else. I'm not saying running away from problems are the way to go, but by getting your mind off of it for awhile is.

Some of my friends go canyon carving, some of my friends go fishing, I hit the gym. There's nothing better than lifting heavy objects to get your mind off of things, in my opinion.

A quote from one of my favorite movies - Into the Wild: "It's not enough to be strong, but you also have to feel strong."