Spring’s reared its head again and for me that always means two things: Allergies and anxiety. The first, I’ve found a way of dealing with thanks to some strong medicine. The latter, however, is more of a challenge. As anyone who has gone through a lifetime of classrooms, papers, finals, and so on can attest, as the semester nears its end, there is the inevitable mental to-do list of requirements left to fulfill, books left to read and papers left to write.
It’s been nearly 10 years since my college days ended, and I still get a vague sense of anxiety when April rolls around. Spring, a season of growth and new beginnings, has for me always been a season of deadlines, a season in which to get things done, and so I use this time of year as a season of rumination, a time to think about what’s going on in my life, where I am, where I want to be, and what I want to be doing.
For years I looked on Spring with dismay. I was never one to “put myself out there” so in the face of all the things I wanted to do, people I wanted to meet, and connections I wanted to make, I religiously put my nose down into the work at hand and justified my inability to share my true self with the lame excuse of lack of time. Work was too important, I’d tell myself.
I like to think that if I had had something like TruConnection, a place where I could write freely and meet others while doing so, I would probably have learned a lot about myself, would have grown, and possibly would have met some people I could connect with because they were able to see who I really was.
If you’ve signed up for TruConnection but have not tried putting yourself out there, I really encourage you to share. Write to your heart’s content, share something about the real you, and you might be surprised to find someone who is truly interested. And if you haven’t signed up yet, give it a shot!
-Chris
