you are not alone.

{via}

this theme starting making an appearance early in the week, when i was totally convinced that every other teacher in the world had all their shiz together, and i was obviously in last place.

yep, i deemed myself the worst teacher in the world.

oh, and of course, i was crying to mr. lesley about it.

he was absolutely positive that it was all a matter of perspective.

that everyone has their issues and sometimes we only see and project what we want to see and project.

but of course i didn't believe him.

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the theme continued to yesterday at a teacher's meeting, where some of my fellow english teacher's shared their own struggles. 

we are trying our best.

we question if the kids are really getting it. 

we definitely don't feel like we're changing the world. 

and just like that, in a small whisper, i heard "you are not alone." 

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and that brings us to today to a conversation with my sister where we decided that everyone, every...single...person is wading through their own set of difficulties and challenges and "life feels really hard right now" moments, days, months, or even years.

and once again i felt the power of the statement, "you are not alone." 

but we also decided that in our "instagram it" and "facebook it" world, everyone projects the best images of themselves for the world to see. 

we slap a #blessed hashtag or a little "lo-fi" or "earlybird" on it and all is happy and well in our world. 

now you have to know i love social media maybe more than most, but i think our desire to make everything look pretty and wonderful has translated in the ways we interact in the real world.

somewhere along the line we forgot that it's ok to struggle, to cry, to be vulnerable, and to share the really, really hard things that can sometimes plague us with each other.

we have forgotten it's ok to just say it.
whatever it is.

so i guess the point of all of this is to remind you,

wherever you are in life...

if you just had the very worst day possible.
if you feel completely misunderstood.
if your ego has recently taken a big sucker punch.
if you hate your job.
if you're struggling in your marriage.
if being single is making you question everything.
if you hate your family.
if you are so discouraged and don't know where to go or what to do.
if you are suffering in silence.

please, please, please know that you are not alone.

take comfort in knowing that there are thousands of others who share your same feelings.
we are fighting a great battle...
but we are doing it together.

and you are going to be ok.