At each stage of my adult life so far, mundane challenges have at times felt overwhelming, and each stage put the prior stage’s challenges in a new perspective. As a college student, a term paper felt like the biggest thing ever. In graduate school, it was the dissertation. As a young married adult, I stressed over my career and my spouse’s. Then came children. One child felt like a full-time job, and I didn’t see how I could fit anything more into my life. Two children plus work, and then trying to be a husband, father, and son, felt like it was practically breaking me. And then came the pandemic. Early on, I felt a sense of despair. I was finally at my breaking point, and I really questioned whether I had it in me to make it through to the other side, especially as the reality of a prolonged shutdown of in-person school and childcare mixed in with everything else I was juggling. But as life progressed through the next several months—as I tried to be present, to accept all of the factors outside of my control, to appreciate time, to connect with loved ones and new and old friends in whatever ways felt safe, to focus on challenges larger than my own and how I can help to address them—I have started to feel more at peace. And, most importantly, I’ve started to feel like I actually can handle what comes my way.
