Life sucks, then you die. A common motif of my College Prep English teacher (who is awesome), Thomas Hardy (the author), and Adam Eickmeyer (me). This is a motto I have referenced countless times in my life when things were going wrong. I still believe the general idea holds true, but I think a less melodramatic way to put it would be “Life is really, really, REALLY, hard. But if you appreciate and learn from your hardships, you will die at peace.” But who the hell wants to say that? Life sucks, then you die is so much more fun to say! Well I’m kind of over that after some reflection on life itself.
My life is not easy, and I really do not think anyone’s is (although Paris Hilton’s is much less not easy than mine, just saying). I spent the last five minutes listening to a song and bawling my eyes out, for no other reason than my  internalized stress has finally built up enough throughout the past day that it had to come out. While watching the documentary Bully the other day, one of the kids compared rain to human emotions, and it was so perfect. What I took from it, is that clouds are like people. We internalize so much of our stress, and eventually it builds up to a point that we can’t keep it in anymore, and we dump it out on everyone around us.
Our hardships and our tears really do have a purpose. How good do you feel after a really good cry? I’m guessing you feel pretty good, because I know I do. I bet you also feel really reflective on your life. I would be willing to wager that some of your best ideas and moments have come after you cried about something. We really don’t take enough time to care about our own feelings, and our clouds build up to the point that when we finally let them out, they express themselves as hurricanes. No one likes hurricanes. Hurricanes hurt everyone in their path. But, how about a nice sprinkle on a warm summer day? Those are the best. Blizzards are unfortunate, but tell me you don’t get excited on those days that it’s snowing just little enough that you can see the individual snowflakes and appreciate their individual beauty.
Don’t let your stress build up to be a hurricane. Let it sprinkle out every once in a while, and I promise you that you will feel better. Let the snowflakes fall, and realize that they are beautiful.
So, put on a sad song and cry your eyes out. I promise you it will feel good. And guys, it really is okay for us to cry. After 18 years I finally realized that- hopefully it won’t take you that long.
Then kick life’s ass otherwise it will kick yours. Embrace the challenge and get in there. Tell that special person how you really feel, get an awkward rejection, eat a ton of junk food, take a risk, do something stupid, stay up until 4am watching Youtube videos with your friend, even though you have so much homework that you should be doing. Enjoy the little moments. Enjoy the struggles. Take a chance and live your life before you can’t. And when life starts sucking, just remember you could be dead.
What do you think?
Peace and love.
Adam
adameickmeyer 