By Natalie Lu, Photo: Natalie Lu, EdSource, July 25, 2022
I didn’t expect to fall apart so quickly.
After transferring to University of California Berkeley in the midst of a pandemic, I assumed I was resilient. But the hard truth hit me faster than a car on a California freeway when I practically lost my mind my senior year. Before this, in 2019, I lost my grandfather to dementia, and months after, suddenly had to navigate a pandemic that could have also taken my grandmother. For a bit, I held my head high, resolved I could ignore my anxiety as I had before.
But the moment I thought I found a ghost of a lump on my forehead, my mental fortitude, as if made out of cardboard, crumpled. I worried for a week to the point that I physically could not get out of bed to go to class. I cried myself dry. After the tears stopped, I eventually came to the conclusion I finally needed: I’m so sick of living like this, and it was high time I addressed it.
Comments (0)