Letter to a coworker
Ginger Swasey
You know how sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall asleep because your mind won’t turn off? It wasn’t an anxious feeling (though often it is), just repetitive. It makes me wonder if hamsters want to get off the wheel but feel compelled to keep moving their legs. Sometimes, that’s how my mind works. And in that way, we are alike.
But I have learned there is another side to everything. With the mountains of people I have had come in and out of my life, either briefly or for an extended time, I have found they can almost be placed on a ruler. The farther they can go in one direction is as far as they can go in the other, in joy and despair. But there is exquisite-ness in the depths. We are complex. Complex people are interesting, and this complexity can help change the world. I would argue that complexities make people more compassionate. More impassioned. But they suffer. Sometimes greatly. But realizing that one would lose the other without it has allowed me to understand it’s a trade-off. You aren’t broke. You just must allow yourself to reach your depths and allow yourself to move along your ruler. Push yourself to find people who will help you when you feel stagnant for too long. I say that to myself as much as you. I know you are suffering, and it’s a hard place to be in. But know that you are complex. The world needs more people who embrace their complexities.
