Four whole years!
I think about it now and it feels like a distant dream that, at any moment, would cuddle up beside me in an attempt to strangle my joy every single chance it gets.
Calling this period Limbo feels appropriate.
I had the clearest vision of how my life was set out to be. I had internalized and shaped into my identity who I was to be through the career I had chosen to follow after having recived the go ahead from my parrents for the choice. I, in turn, fantasized alongside them as to how I would be a working class citizen with my own house while they were knee deep into thier retirement, the occasional visits I would have once I had carved out some time in my schedule.
After having a challenging first year in University where nothing was what I had expected, it never dawned on me that I did not have a vast toolbox to deal with issues that effected my emotional state of being nevertheless I know the solution was putting my head in the sand and grinding through.
The second year, sure enough, I stayed true to myself and I put in the work and it payed off. Things had picked up from what they were from the previous year. I had passed everything I needed to pass for the year and I was happy for myself even though I knew that the performance felt lower than what I knew I could put out but it was better than what it was beforehand. At this point in time, the conversations I was sharing with my Father were staring to align and we were able to share what our ideologies about life and wealth creation and wealth retention. I was staring to bloom into an adult that was able to voice who I was and my ideas without limitations. I was becoming.
The third year I was in University was a time when I had gotten around to qualify to take all remaining second year modules. I was feeling strong and confident of the year ahead of me. For what felt like something that manifested from nowhere, I recived back to back calls from my Father with the hopes that I wasn’t busy so he would tell me something important and given that it was a time where I was of one mind, school, I was naturally annoyed at having some great secret being kept from me.
A few weeks down the line I recived another call from this Man. Remembering that I had owed him a conversation and what felt like something I didn’t have a choice in, he went on to break it to me that he was from a major operation where they removed his lung because he had lung Cancer. Lung Cancer!? Only now you tell me?! Instantly my mind crashes and I just don’t know. I don’t know how I feel. I don’t know what this means for him. I don’t know what I can do help the situation. I don’t know how to feel. I don’t know what I feel. I don’t know what this means for me. I had been currently watching Breaking Bad and the character, Walter White had also been diagnosed with lung cancer and had also gotten surgery to remove a lung. I draw questions from the show and ask about the progression of his illness and the measures that were taken.
The most confusing feeling of hearing a hopeful voice that is in pain and fear all at the same time. It sounded like my Father had a fear of breaking this news to me. How can this Man whom I look up to be afraid of informing little old me of such information? Torn was one of the feelings I felt. All this is is happening March/April of the year. To say the least, it wasn’t a good year.
I just want to run away!
This is a very dangerous state of mind to be in because trying to run away from your own mind is like fighting the wind, it is pointless and you will burn out before you put a dent on your opponent. I wasn’t aware of this and abandoned my quest for education and rather went on an adventure to run away from my own mind in any way possible. I tried it all except for taking to someone who would have a better viewpoint and understanding of what I was going through but I was too proud to seek help because, “I solve my own problems”. 0/10 would not recommend running away from your own mind and problems. It is a masive waste of time and energy. Just find someone to talk to and to cry to just to deload and take things from there in trying to accept your new situation in life.
I used drugs to cope. F.Y.I, there wasn’t any coping. Infact it only felt like the pain I was running from was compounding and comming closer to me. A negative feedback loop had began.
I felt like shit, did drugs, felt better until I remembered why I was doing the drugs in the first place, the did more. Was pumping out shit performance in school, did drugs to numb that until I remembered why I was doing the drugs in the first place, felt like shit then did them even more. Negative feedback loop on steroids. A person allows a vast number of things to turn bad when they are deep in this terrible loop.
Thoughts of suicide were never far off! Just the idea of switching off the pain by ending it all.
My fucking brain is trying to kill me!
And mind you, things haven’t even started to turn bad.