You'd think at 26, I would have realized and come to terms with this fact by now. It just seems to be the natural order of things - what goes up must come down, etc. For every high there is a low; for every low, there is a high. The moon shines brightly at its fullest, then disappears as a new moon. The tide comes in, it goes out. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. You get the drift.
So the rational mind can accept the existence of these valleys. And yet, when you're in the midst of a valley (in the doldrums, so to speak); when you look around you and all you see is dim; when there seems no way out of the low; when there are all these outrageous mountainous obstacles surrounding you and you can't seem to muster the strength to take one more step, let alone climb... the rational mind kind of stops mattering.
What takes over is that little voice in your head that seems to whine, to whisper coaxingly, "We're so tired. Can't we just stop? There's not really a point in going forward, we're not getting out of this valley anytime soon..." It's so tempting to listen to it, too. To just throw your hands up and to give up, to give into the fear and the doubts and the self-questioning and the mistakes and the failures and the plain old negativity that seems to surround you.
I know this feeling all too well, as it might seem clear to you. The semester has taken its toll, and my little heart is about ready to throw in the towel for 2014. I'm just... done. My empathy has worn thin, my patience has worn thin, even my optimism seems to be in rare supply these days (although hopefully I'm hiding these things pretty well when interacting with other people :) ).
I say this not to be a "Debbie Downer," nor to make anyone worried, but rather, to be open and vulnerable about where I am right now, in hopes that perhaps my struggle will help someone, maybe even you, feel a little better about the #strugglebus you're riding.
I don't have some clever fix for surviving this valley, or any valleys I'll encounter going forward. I don't have some brilliant management tip, or quote, or anything to put some pep in your step. All I've got is faith, and experience, the two best teachers of all. You see, I've been in a valley before. Lots of them, actually. Some have been deeper than others; some have been wider and longer than others, but the beautiful thing is that they've all ended. They end in a climb, of course, which is a challenge in and of itself, for what goes down, must come back up. On the other hand... it can only go up from here.
So if you find yourself in a valley today, know you're not alone. There are a few of us hanging out with you in this valley. And let's take a moment to appreciate that. Not only can we be thankful for this togetherness in the hard times - we are never, ever alone in our struggles - but we can also appreciate the valleys, for they make the heights even more joyful and beautiful than they are.
It is only after being in the valley that we can have an appreciation for how far we've climbed, how much we've grown and learned, how much we can see and understand from the peaks.
