Surviving The Exhaustion.

My elder sister once came home from a very stressful day at work. As she plopped on the sofa, letting all her weight down, she looked at me and asked, "So you're telling me that as an adult human, all I have to do is work every day, come home and take care of my kids and family, go to bed late doing that, wake up early the next morning, and it goes on repeat till the day I die?"

I looked at her and said, "Don't scare me."

I grew up with a lot of older siblings before me. Technically, I saw their struggles as they grew into responsible adults. I had my little notes on things I learned from their mistakes. I told myself I’d put it all together like a huge puzzle in my own life so things wouldn’t be so hard for me. By the time I became an adult, I would have everything figured out.

But then I grew up. And I’m still growing.

All the notes I gathered from watching other people's lives didn't prepare me enough for my own. It turned out to be a completely different chapter, nothing like what I had seen others go through. I faced a thousand and one phases: moments of joy, pain, hustle, and days so rough they made me wish I wasn’t even born. It was all so draining and never-ending, like a cycle that must keep going until breathing calls it quits.

In the midst of all that tiredness, I find comfort in knowing I have people I can talk to, people who have been through worse and didn’t think they would make it, yet they did. There’s a kind of energy I get after a deep conversation with my close circle, people who see my struggles and reassure me every day that everything will be fine. And when I finally jump a hurdle, I smile, remembering when someone told me I would.

Other times, I gain back my energy by cutting off the noise and being alone. That’s how I recharge eight out of ten times. A day of gathering and filtering my thoughts helps me see things clearly. My mind settles, my actions become more composed, and I’m ready to be hit by life again—this time, I won’t fall so fast.

And when I start missing the sun, I realize that a little outside energy won’t hurt at all. Spending time with my friends and family is one of the best ways I recharge. Getting away from my anxieties for a few hours, laughing, making jokes, and just having fun is the easiest way to forget about stress. Being around the people I love has a healing effect. Sometimes, I find myself smiling long after, thinking about all the jokes and happy moments.

Life is a lot of things. People have used the worst words to describe how tough it is. But at the end of the day, life is what we make of it. And the good news? No matter how draining it gets, we can always get our energy back. Life is moody enough, but we can choose our happiness and live through it, smiling through the pain.