Dear reader,

I’ve had the title of this blog in my drafts for a while but didn’t quite know how to tackle it initially.

All of us go through a hard time at some point, even if some have it harder than others due to inequalities. As some well known quotes have put it, we all get dealt cards in life. Some of us get better cards than others and we can feel screwed over, but it is about how we play those cards. Every person has their struggle and just because you may be lucky in some ways doesn’t mean you don’t have it incredibly hard in others. As someone close to me once said, privilege and your struggles don’t counteract each other. You can be lucky in some ways and unlucky in others.

I’ve been thinking a lot of about how to phrase what I write here. But I realised what matters more is that we share our struggles and talk about them. My life turned around at the end of 2019 and sometimes I still feel like I’m navigating it. I don’t have all the answers of how to best react when you’re going through a hard period. But I’ve been making videos of some of favourite memories / highlights recently and it made me really remember despite the fact that things are not easy that there really are happy moments - times worth living for.

I could sit here and type that it’s all temporary and nothing lasts forever. That this too, no matter how hard, will pass. Whilst that’s true, you’ve probably heard that already and when you’re actually in difficult periods, it isn’t necessarily always all that helpful. Difficult times often feel all consuming and like they have no end. Sometimes what is helpful is just to hear that other people have shared your pain and understand it. That you’re not alone.

Someone out there shares your pain and sees you. Someone out there understands and it’s maybe only a few hard conversations away. What was once a scary conversation to me to someone I didn’t know super well ended up turning into a conversation where I really felt seen and my pain felt understood.