As many of you know, in February I broke my ankle. This was an extremely difficult time for me and those around me. I remember after I had surgery and probably the first two weeks of recovery I just fell into this dark, dark place. Since I'm studying psychology, I wasn't surprised at how easy it was for me to become depressed. As each day went by it would get easier some days and harder too. Transition from the boot and the walker, to just the boot, to regular shoes again seemed to happen in no time. People would tell me almost everyday how shocked they were at my turn around. I was shocked too, but I still struggled a ton with certain things. The hardest thing for me was stairs. While most people would think that going up would be harder (because it is IRL) going down was the real task. It didn't take me long to go up stairs normally, but it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I was able to go down the stairs without feeling pain. The reason why I bring this up is because it took me a few times to go down stairs without feeling pain before I realized it was actually happening. For weeks, the only thing I could think about was my situation and my pain. I dreaded any situations where I knew I would have to walk long distances and I had to consciously think about walking on uneven surfaces.
I think this is the case with so many situations in life. A "major" event happens and we don't know what to do, how to deal or if life will ever get better. Days go by, some days it's easy to deal with and other days, the days we're confronted with the past of the event or the memory of that person and it feels like we're pushed back to day 1. The day it happened, the day we knew life could never get better.I felt like that several times post surgery. I'd have one bad day where I couldn't make it back to bed faster or I'd go days without having to take anything to manage the pain and then one day all I can think about is getting some relief.
Somewhere along the way, whether it's days, months or years - life gets better. This event doesn't consume every minute of our day. It's hard to tell when and how it happened, but we're happier and maybe we've even got over it. I can say first hand I've gone through this with other situations. Just like everyone else, I've thought - it cannot get any worse than this and it has, but it always gets better. And the day when things get better without you even realizing it is when you really learn something. I've learned that these minor situations are hard, but they could always be worse. And no matter how much I wanted to believe that they would be the end of me, it wasn't.
The day I broke my ankle, I remember thinking "these days are going to get worse and worse" and less than 3 months later, I was engaged and happier than ever. We will always go through rough patches in life. We lose a job, get a bad grade, a relationship falls apart, lose a relative and while it seems like hope couldn't be farther away - one day the pain will subside and most likely, we won't even realize it.
No comments:
Post a Comment