It Gets Better

I started off college like anybody else would. I went to my first collegiate football game as a student, stressed over finals, and made some great friends like anybody else would. At the same time, though, something was changing. I later learned that I really was dealing with depression for the first time. It can happen for so many reasons. For me, it was that I was away from my home and family for such an extended period for the first time. I was always extremely close to my family, and then suddenly here I am in a different state than all of them. To make matters worse, I lost a grandparent about halfway through the semester… that certainly doesn't help things!

Things finally came to a head in February of my freshman year. I wasn't sleeping well and was so demotivated towards doing anything that I ended up bombing a test. That’s so incredibly unlike me that I feel like it shocked me into further depression. At this point, my friends ended up noticing how differently I had started acting, and they brought it up to me. I’m so blessed to say that they did, because that was the point where I was able to start working on this very real problem that I had.

I know how hard it can be to notice these small changes in yourself, but thankfully I had others who were willing to point all of that out to me. Thanks to them, I was able to get the treatment that I needed and today couldn't be better. My advice for anybody reading this is if you’re a friend please be willing to look out for your friends and try to talk to them if you notice how differently they’re acting. Sometimes that’s a great push in the right direction.

And finally, if you’re in college and you deal with some major life stress, trust me when I say that it gets better. It may not seem like it at the time, but it really is the case! And also realize that you have so much support here at TCU from people who really do love you and want you to feel happy. College should be the most amazing four years of your life, and you owe it to yourself to not let depression get in the way.