Tags: self-care
"Trace your finger along the window, following the sun as she rises."
College was the first time I didn’t totally enjoy summer. All my life I had looked forward to being able to sleep all day with no obligation to complete anything by a certain deadline. The promise of having no responsibilities kept me going through the school year. Now it’s different.
In college I’m always busy, and while I dread it in the moment, I long for it when it's gone.
This summer I’ve been at my mother’s house in North Carolina. Growing up in Los Angeles and visiting New York City frequently, I’m used to being in a big city that’s full of things to do, almost too many things. However, Charlotte is very different. While it counts as a big city for small-town southerners, it feels just as rural as anywhere else to me. I spent a month and a half staying home, almost every day.
The first two weeks I went out with my friends, but we quickly ran out of activities. You can only go to the same thrift stores and museums and cafes so many times. I thought now would be the perfect time to catch up on all my shows and knock a few movies off of my list, maybe even check up on my neglected Sims. That too gets old after a minute.
I noticed that no matter what, it was never enough to quiet my mind. I would talk to friends from school and things that were never a problem during the semester were suddenly paramount issues. Interactions with guys that I had forgotten about suddenly needed to be deeply analyzed, to the point of watching youtube videos on body language to see if what he said matched the crossing of his arms. I had recently ended a friendship with a so-called friend whom my parents, therapist, and other friends disliked because of the way she treated me. Throughout the school year, I was able to push off everything she said because there were more pressing matters at hand. I had papers to write, or student films I was a part of. I found that by overbooking myself I was given a valid excuse to basically ignore her.
With all of the things that I experienced during the school year, paired with the never-ending list of academic responsibilities, I was never able to take time alone and properly process everything. I found, that like in high school, I had checked out and started moving through the motions. Unlike high school, I was never awarded time to feel the emotions and then check back out.
Essentially, what I’m saying is, for me coming home for break is a chance for me to slip back into old habits, and it's not necessarily good. With all that I experienced mental health wise, college was a chance to fix it. Coming home reminds me of those bad times. I stop eating properly, stop sleeping. I stay in bed all day and have nothing to force me to change my behavior. All of the progress I made at school is immediately reversed as soon as the plane lands. It seems that my therapy sessions every two weeks are not enough. I journal, I color, I bike ride, but nothing requires as much of my attention as school. My friends and I find ourselves calling each other and having breakdowns over minute things, such as social media posts from people we never actually talk to. The time seems to go slower and we are basically going stark-raving mad. The only thing holding us together is the countdown till the start of the next school year, and the promise of once more having a lack of time for ourselves.
Here is a list of things that have helped me survive, and hopefully you can modify them for your situation (everyone has different needs and circumstances):
Tags: mental healthlgbtq
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