hahahaa this is the funniest “My Boyfriend Does My Makeup” tag I’ve seen
College Stress *Important*
This initially was not something that I wanted to share with anybody, and the thought of people knowing that I had a mental breakdown due to stress was terrifying and just plain embarrassing. However, I realized that this is an important thing to discuss.
Finals are approaching for those of us attending a college or university and they’re approaching rather quickly. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with the stress of completing assignments, studying for tests, and writing papers on time. As if that’s not bad enough, we have to also take several things into consideration like what GRADES we actually get on these things and that god forsaken decimal we call our GPA.
Stress can effect people in several different ways. I’d like to share my recent experience resulting in an anxiety attack:
For me it’s the semester’s critical point. Finals are important, but ensuring that you still receive a good overall grade regardless of your finals requires that you complete and do well on all of your assignments. If you have an A in the class and get a B on the final, it’s a hell of a lot better than receiving a B on the final when you have a B or C in the class. It makes going into the finals a little less stressful too.
For my English class, we spent the entire year working on small assignments in anticipation of our final big project—a 10 page research paper (in a format I’ve never written a paper before). Well, finally we got the prompt for this paper. And just as quickly as we received the prompt, it seemed the deadline had approached. Given the circumstances that I have never done a paper quite like that one, I’m a world-class procrastinator, and I had no interest in my topic at all, I put off the paper til almost the last minute.
It was about 4 in the morning, techinically April 27th. I practically had nothing finished on my paper. I was really upset because of a stupid argument with my boyfriend. Those emotions started to melt into the stress I already had regarding this huge assignment. On top of that, I was angry that I was even awake at 4 am because I needed to have a full night of sleep in order to go to my two classes that afternoon and write my entire paper. These three things combined yielded an anxiety attack from hell.
My symptoms included rage, crying, loss of breath, pacing back and forth, and irrational thoughts. I was crying because that’s how I react when I’m angry. I felt helpless. I felt like everything was going wrong and there was no solution. I wanted to sleep. I had been up for about 18 hours and I was exhausted, yet the mix of emotions kept me from being able to do so. I couldn’t breathe. Taking a deep breath was impossible therefore, “calming down” was completely out of the question. I have never felt so small and helpless in my entire life. When you’re having an anxiety attack, you’re not thinking rationally or logically. I had some pretty scary/crazy thoughts, not going to lie. It came to the point where I really just wanted to die. It may seem completely over the top and dramatic, but as I said, nothing makes sense when you’re having an anxiety attack. It became clear why so many kids in college resort to drugs, suicide, and other scary “solutions”. Not everyone has the strength and self-control they should and stress can really get the better of them. Fortunately, no matter how crazy I felt, I knew I didn’t really want to die. I just didn’t want to be conscious. And that’s the truth.
If I hadn’t been cursed with nasal congestion that night, I’m not sure how the rest of that day would have played out. However, because i had trouble breathing from my nose and a short supply of tissues, I decided to take NyQuil. This knocked me out almost instantly.
The next day I woke up feeling embarrassed, confused, and annoyed that any of that had even occurred. I went to class, I started on my paper, and with the help of my sisters, completed my entire paper that day. I still felt weird about the whole situation though. I took a break before I had completely finished the paper and I went to the store with my friends Oppan and Tom. While waiting for Tom, I kind of summarized my anxiety attack to Oppan. Being the way I am, I presented it in almost a joking way, even though I was still clearly in some type of funk. To my surprise, Oppan wasn’t surprised or confused or anything I thought he’d be. He knew exactly how I felt. It truly was relieving to know that someone could relate to my crazy morning. When Tom finally met with us, he showed the same understanding. What a breath of fresh air.
Here’s what I want you to take from this:
- Stress can really have an extreme effect on you. While anxiety attacks aren’t ideal, they’re common. The last thing you should do is stress over the fact that you just had a stress-based anxiety attack.
- Anxiety attacks are nothing to be embarrassed about. They happen to the best of us. The best thing you can do is try to sit down and rationalize your thoughts. Go to sleep if you have to. Do whatever it takes, as long as it’s harmless.
- Talk to your peers or older siblings. Chances are, they know exactly what you’re going through and it’s really relieving to have someone relate to you.
- If they don’t understand, don’t get mad. Not everyone has experienced what you’re going through. If they truly care, they’ll try to understand anyway, and that is comforting in itself. If they really just don’t show interest, it’s best to walk away and find someone that will.
- You can always talk to me :) Stress may have won some battles against me this week, but I came out on top in the end anyway and I know that you will too.
I hope I’ve helped at least one person out with this SUPER long blog post. If this didn’t apply to you, thanks for reading anyway. Knowledge of these things prior to an incident is great. I always thought people were over-exaggerating but this is the real deal. I wish I had some type of knowledge before my bad experience :( I turned in the paper the next day, but that worry has still not completely gone away. But I’m convinced a good full night of rest is the cure.
Good luck with the rest of your semester!
-SS
Favorite PR acoustic performance
TEA RULES.
My understanding of tea etiquette in Britain is:
OFFER YOUR GUEST TEA AS SOON AS THEY ARRIVE - GIVE THEM THE LARGER MUG, BECAUSE THEN THEY CAN HAVE MORE TEA IN IT, AND MORE TEA IS BETTER - OFFER THEM MORE TEA AS SOON AS THEY HAVE FINISHED THEIR MUG OF TEA, BECAUSE MORE TEA IS BETTER.
IF SOMEONE LOOKS STRESSED, OFFER TO MAKE THEM TEA. IF SOMEONE LOOKS UPSET, OFFER TO MAKE THEM TEA. IF SOMEONE LOOKS TIRED, OFFER TO MAKE THEM TEA. IF SOMEONE HAS JUST COME IN FROM THE RAIN, OFFER TO MAKE THEM TEA. IF SOMEONE HAS JUST RECEIVED BAD NEWS, OFFER TO MAKE THEM TEA. IF YOU ARE WATCHING TV WITH SOMEONE AND THERE IS AN ADBREAK, OFFER TO MAKE THEM TEA. IF YOU ARE MAKING YOURSELF TEA, OFFER TO MAKE EVERYONE ELSE TEA.
IF SOMEONE IS NOT CURRENTLY HOLDING A MUG OF TEA, DOUBLE CHECK THAT THAT IS AN INTENTIONAL STATE OF AFFAIRS, AND THEY DO NOT, IN FACT, WANT A CUP OF TEA.
TEA
I am learning the ways of my people.
My Beautifully Overplayed Albums
Here’s my favorite albums I’ve been listening to start to finish for the past few months.
- Lana Del Rey - Born To Die
- Fun. - Some Nights
- Amy Winehouse - Lioness: Hidden Treasures
- Cody B. Ware - Welcome Home
- Jeff Donna - Lost & Found Pt. 1
- The Cab - Symphony Soldier
- Immature - The Journey (random, i know)
- Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
- Musiq Soulchild - Aijuswanaseing
- The Pretty Reckless - Light Me Up
- Bad Rabbits - Stick Up Kids
My taste in music is kinda all over the place. Just like me. Fuck.
Well if you’re looking for some good shit, start with some of these!
-SS
An email from Mohammad
My daughters,
I look at you and I dont see the passage of time. I see my little girls playing dress up, running through the yard, playing on a swing. I will try and respect the fact that you are older now and that the decisions you will make are your own but you must understand, to me you will always be my little girls. I may not be able to carry you in my arms anymore, but I will always carry you in my heart.
Have a wonderful day.
Your loving father
UMMMM SO CUTE I DIE. Love my daddy :)
