"This to, shall pass"

Stress, stress, stress!! It's when I shine, shine, shine.  As a side note, it's my mom's birthday. Relevent to the story, I called her to say "Love you, thinking of you on your day".  A half hour later, we were closing the convo and she called me on the changes I have been making (aka, getting back to HS me).  She asked why I was reverting, and made a comment that 'didn't I hate HS and college?'.  The internal answer was mostly yes.  I was a social outcast, had more pressure than most teenagers ever know (I am not exaggerating, but know some had it worse), had no clue where I wanted to go in life, and started each day with the thought, "Am I going to survive?".  I admit to having horrible lows, even ones that almost ended my days.  I never really saw past getting out of college as I walked the halls. Maybe, in a way, I never intended to.
But even as those memories flooded my mind, I answered my mom with a shocker.  'It was hard, but it needed to be.  I needed the struggle, both real and just in my head, to learn to live.  What didn't kill me, or make me want to kill myself, gave me strength.'
Why bring it up? Between work and its crazy hours, no word on how my car repairs are going, planning an amazing menu, two birthdays in my family, juggling three siblings who are missing me,planning a vacation for the end of the year,  my latent crushes, trouble finding clothes that fit in my closet, editing items on my 101/1001 list, having items I bought not fit in the car (so I have to set up alternate plans), loss of sleep, etc, I am doing so well my coworkers swear I am being medicated or smoking something. My hours have kept me from being able to call my friends at decent hours, so what is keeping me together? The same thing that kept me from dissolving into a puddle of goo in HS.  Having people I love, making plans to spoil them, feeling needed/wanted, my favorite shampoo, finding an ounce of courage to make a fool of myself, posting comments on friends' pages or blogs, and that annoying sense of hope that tomorrow will be better.

"It's not waiting for the storms to pass, it's learning to dance in the rain"

And I feel like learning a few dance moves.