I was discussing, with a friend, the other day the statistic of anxiety for first year university students.  Apparently 80% of them are suffering serious anxiety.

This is troubling because the teenage years are without question the most difficult.  Do you remember?  Some people enter into their tweens with confidence and purpose but that’s rather unusual.  Most of us sample different lifestyles like trying on jackets hoping to quickly find one that fits.  Sometimes we wear the wrong jacket to fit in and other times we feel like we’re out in the cold with no jacket whatsoever.  High school can be a breeding ground for humiliation which is ironic because most everyone is in the same boat.

Then with little life experience, an inside spark of belief and courage, and lots of outside influence we go to college where absolutely everything is different.  We’re on our own.  Overnight, we’re expected to “adult” and be self-sufficient.  We manage our meals, our classes, our alarm clock, our assignments, our sports, our laundry, our bank accounts, our social schedule and what feels like everything else in between.  The environment can be so consuming that the big goal – finding ourselves – is hazy at best.

Is this overwhelming “college stress” because of lack of preparation, knowledge, experience or support?  Or is it that inherent desire to fit in that is still gnawing?

Aha! ~ “Resolve to be thyself; and know that he who finds himself, loses his misery.” ~ Matthew Arnold, British writer

I watched a presentation by a franchise owner who shifted careers after a substantial investment at head office in a completely unrelated field.  He was beaming in his current position in the travel industry which was a 180 degree shift from where he trained then invested his first decade of employment.  He found himself.  His passion beamed through his voice and his eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning.  Even more, he was magnetic!

Some arrive at “themselves” sooner than others but the Law of Gestation says there is no set timeframe.  “Being myself includes taking risks with myself, taking risks on new behavior, trying new ways of ‘being myself’, so that I can see who it is I want to be.”  ~ Hugh Prather, American Writer.

See?  It’s not about reaching the destiny.  It’s about resolving to be thyself - trusting the process - whatever that looks like and however long it takes.  The more versions of you that you allow yourself to try on, the better.

Isn’t it fun being you??

Discovering ourselves is a life-long pursuit - tweaking as we go – with “happiness” being the number one goal.  We are finding our happy place in Human U, join us!