I lay awake at 3:00 AM stressing over tomorrow’s killer math test.  Finally, 7:00 AM hit, and I heard the worst possible noise I could hear at that time. It was my alarm. I decided to close my eyes for another five minutes, but we all know that never works out well. Before I even knew it, I woke up in a panic realizing that it was 7:30, and I had to be out of the house in 30 minutes. Nothing this morning was going right, and I already had a feeling it was going to be a terrible day. I looked terrible, I felt terrible, and I still had the entire day ahead of me.

 I finally got to school and went through the day until my least favorite period was coming, my math period. I took my test, and I had completely blanked out and forgotten how to do everything. “Great,” I thought to myself, all that studying for nothing. My parents found out about how badly I have been doing in my classes, and I had gotten yelled at for that. All I could think about was wanting this day to end. Finally, it was time to go home. When I got home, it did not get any better. I realized my room was a mess, and I was just done at that point, until I saw my phone light up and was buzzing. It was a group Facetime call from my closest friends. At that moment, I felt all my stress that had been building up all day just leave my body, and my face immediately lit up.

Technically, all you need to live is  “some shelter, some food, and some reason to be alive.” Personally, I believe that you need a little more to life: a comfort thing, person, or place. Some examples of comfort things, places, or people are a stuffed animal, baby blanket, your personal room, or wherever you feel the safest, parents, friends, etc. Personally, for me, my closest friends are a huge part of my life and have become people of comfort for me. 

This is a picture of my closest friends on an album that means a lot to me, “Certified Lover Boy” by Drake. They have been here for me through thick and thin. They are my ride or die, and I could not imagine my life without them in it and where I would be now. 

Now, I know some people in a time of vulnerability would not like to talk to anybody and would rather just be in their own world. Some alternatives to talking with friends might be going to the gym and taking your anger out on something beneficial or honestly just sleeping; do anything that speaks out to you and gives you that feeling of calmness no matter how strange it is. It could be as strange as a telephone booth. 

As you can see, Godfrey Daniels found comfort in the ringing of a telephone. 

No matter what YOU find as your comfort thing, person, or place, it is the one thing that I think you need to survive in this world. With so many different changes and challenges that are happening now in our society, it’s important to always stay grounded.