When I was a kid I would always tell my parents, “I can’t wait until I’m an adult because I get to do (insert some adult activity here),” and my parents used to tell me “Stay young as long as you can.”

As I have started making my way through my early 20s and start to discover myself and the world around me, I have realized something about life: it sucks.

I see why parents told me to try and keep my youth. Being in this weird transitional period between young adult to an actual adult really sucks sometimes and what is worse is the world just seems to throw you into it.

Sometimes I feel like there is no pause button, like your life is stuck in fast forward and there is no way to catch up to it.

I have had a lot of things personally happen to me in the past couple years, things I was not prepared to deal with.

I have endured a lot of pain and loneliness and felt my sanity slowly slip away from me.

But recently, I have made a new realization about life: it still sucks, but I do have faith that it will get better.

In life you are going to have all these completely random moments that will come and turn your world completely upside down and that is OK.

It is important to know that if you’re going through these moments your not alone. If your boyfriend just broke up with you, you are not alone. If you just failed your math test, you are not alone. If you just lost your grandmother, you are not alone. If you just spilled coffee all over your homework, then your printer ran out of ink as you tried to make a new copy, then you fell up the steps on the way to the class you are already late to just to find out it was canceled, You are not alone!

Not everything in life is going to be easy and yes, it will suck. It probably will suck a lot and probably for a while. But eventually, and probably when you least expect it, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. One day you will wake up and acknowledge that your boyfriend was awful to you or your grandma would not want you to be sad anymore or “hey, I’m having a crappy week” and still be able to make it through your day. Not to say that it will not still hurt or feel unfair at times but at least you will be making a step to healing and seeing that things will get better.

So if you are dealing with those curveballs and weird transitional moments that life tends to throw at us, please keep fighting. Know that you are not alone and that there happiness will find it is way back to you. Surround yourself with a good support system, keep positive, and ask for help if you need it. Life may suck sometimes and it may seem like things won’t get better but it will, just give it some time.

Chynna Miller is a senior theatre arts major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or cdmiller3@eiu.edu.