Give Me Everything You Got

The human spirit is a resilient thing. We endure so much as we persist in the face of challenge after challenge. Everyone's battle is unique, but our drive to push on is consistent.

Whenever someone asks how I am, I always say that I'm good. That's because in the grand scheme of things, I am. I have a roof over my head, food in my stomach, and passion in my heart. Even still, I have to realize that life has been a bit of a roller coaster as of late (for added context, I'm afraid of heights, and I hate roller coasters).

Although I always try to sugarcoat things, the last year of my life has been challenging. I lost my grandfather to cancer in the fall, my partner has been off work since January on account of an injured rotator cuff, my favourite high-school teacher passed away last month, and my grandmother didn't know who I was the last time I visited. And of course, there's all the idiocy happening south of the border that directly negatively affects everyone on this planet.

For these reasons and more, I've been in survival mode. The best indicator of this is that I haven't written a single word in months. I just feel so uninspired, so drained, so burnt out. I hope that admitting to myself that I've been struggling will be the first step to coming out the other side.

Fortunately, a lot of amazing things have also happened to me over the past year. I moved in with my partner, we traveled to England, I published my first novel, and I just attended a Florence + the Machine concert (my all-time favourite artist). Oh, and my cat randomly went semi-viral on Instagram. The good things that abound have certainly helped me to survive.

In the words of Florence Welch:

Come on, come on, I can take it.

Give me everything you got.

What else, what else, what else, what else?