It seems as though the world as we know it has come to a collective stand still. Each day I wake up confused, and no longer eager for what the day may bring; I know what the day is going to bring. Yet again, I will experience a 24-hour period in which I won’t see my friends, I won’t have a place to go outside of my bed or my couch, and I will spend the hours in which I am not asleep either reading or mindlessly scrolling. This uncertainty is maddening, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t desperately longing to go back in time about 6 weeks.

I think it goes without saying that in recent years, people have been overly hostile towards others with differing opinions and beliefs from their own, the most obvious example of this being politics. I definitely think that this is more common amongst younger generations, especially because it is easier to attack someone for their beliefs when you’re hiding behind the safety of a screen.

I recently had a pretty bad falling out with a friend. She was actually a big part of the inspiration for my last blog post; it had become an extremely toxic, one-sided relationship that I felt was no longer enriching in terms of my wellbeing, so I decided to cut it off. I was met with a great deal of hostility: I was told that I don’t understand mental health, that I forget other people struggle mentally, and, the one that I was taken aback by the most, that I am a bully. Each of these comments took me by surprise; there is hardly anything that I am more passionate about than mental health, the only thing I could think of is maybe music, maybe. I try to be there for my friends in any capacity that I can when they are struggling with their mental health, even people who I may not be very close with, I try to act in any way that I can to help.

I am in a class this semester, Wellness in Learning, Coaching, Teaching, and Leadership, which focuses, you guessed it, on wellness. The class focuses on four basic spheres of wellness: mental/psychological wellness, physical wellness, professional/academic wellness, and spiritual wellness. Each sector of wellness focuses on how one can reach their fullest potential in that aspect of life, and that definition of wellness is what builds the content of the course.

This year, I picked up a regular babysitting job for a family who lives near campus. A few months ago, I was driving the girls home from dance class. Typically when we’re driving I’ll play my music at a regular volume and they’ll hum or sing along in the backseat if they know the song, or sometimes even if they don’t. This time, however, I was playing the music quieter than usual, not for any particular reason, but I was hesitant to turn it up because of what the girls were talking about in the back seat.