The Age of Worry

What’s a chapter of your life you’d title “The Hard Years” — and what got you through it?

Every season you may agree has its set of challenges, hard times and sweet moments to savor. Some years though make it hard to cling on to what’s good and worry takes over you.

I worked nine years in a school and it’s where I learnt to be a teacher, due to some reasons I had to leave. The period after that was a rocky one. I couldn’t adapt to any new school system and I kept quitting out of fear, anxiety and panic taking over me.

I believe the turning point came when I stopped trying to control the situation and took a step back. I simply gave up and my family agreed I needed to be left alone instead of pursuing that elusive dream job.

In the time I was at home I’d barely eat. I remember only asking for green apples because they seemed comforting. Time has a way of helping you heal and I slowly took to writing in a diary. I was afraid to go back to a school structure so I finally decided to do something on my own. Work on my own terms. Friends and family helped and I began a small class at home.

I did find my way back to a classroom but those were the hard years for me. I believe it gets hard when worry takes over you. It doesn’t allow you to think, act, reason, stay strong, stay light hearted. You are simply tangled up in it.

I’m reminded of a John Mayer song that released then and the lyrics still remind me of that time.

Alive in the age of worry
Smile in the age of worry
Go wild in the age of worry
And sing Worry, why should I care?

You maybe pushed down by circumstances. It may make you timid, lose your self confidence and faith in yourself. You have to remember that what shines in you is always within you and you can fight back and you can rise from troubled times.

Also every season does turn and you’re left wondering whether the age of worry were the hard years or the solitary ones are even more challenging. May it be any given time you can be sure you’ll find out something about you that was hidden from you through the good years and through the hard ones…