“A long time ago, I told a friend that I would never be happy in life. That my brain was too whirry and too busy thinking of all the things I could/should/will be doing and never able to focus on the present. How can someone be happy if they’re thinking of something else all the time? In the last few years, however, I came to accept the fact that this overarching, fuzzy idea of happiness couldn’t be my goal. It was unrealistic, and I felt that I was failing - people were writing to say “oh, you’re living the dream!” — but internally I was struggling with what I was doing and why I was doing it.What I was feeling made sense given that I got here by accident (as in, I didn’t quit my job to be a travel writer or seek happiness), but I still needed to parse through my thoughts and also take stock of who I had become after many years of travel.”

I get that. My brain has been “whirring” for so long now that I began to realise that I was wasting my time thinking of things that didn’t have an end, at least not an easy end, and that for that reason I wasn’t thinking of other things that would in fact make me happier. A lot of times it was easier to slip into that bath of thoughts than progress a feeling.

Why worry? As the song goes, “there will be sunshine after rain”.

New research shows that emotional skills are crucial to academic performance. I know I’m not great at it, but I want to be better. If you’re very anxious about something, or agitated, how well can you focus on what’s being taught? I have low emotional intelligence, but its getting better. And Im very aware of it in others.

Also, it's hard to listen when people tell you that they dig you when you don't dig you. Not sure how thats related, just popped out.