Reaching Out

Since the summer, my anxiety levels have been a roller coaster.

During the summer, I would have good days and bad days, but it always felt as though the bad days outnumbered the good.

I would be stressed over everything, I would kick myself for every little thing done wrong and I just felt as though I was letting everyone down the whole summer.

That's a lot on one person's shoulders.

The whole summer long I felt as though I was letting everyone down and I didn't talk to anyone about it.

I felt so alone for three months, but I couldn't ask someone for help.

I felt as though I couldn't ask someone for help because I didn't think other people would understand. I thought that they would compare my constant anxiety to stressing out over a test that you only became nervous for a few minutes before you receive the test.

I felt as though I was always on edge and that anything could set me off.

It went on for so long that it became a normal feeling to me.

That's not okay.

I didn't do much to change things, but I did start to talk to people more, I started to say how I truly felt from time to time and it felt pretty good.

I knew that I'm defiantly not the only person who deals with anxiety in the world, but I felt as though I was the only person in MY world, meaning my social groups.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Did you know that nowadays, about one person out of three deals with a mental illness of some sort?

That's insane, it's absolutely insane. One person out of every three? That could be your mother, father, brother, sister, cousin, best friend, teacher, classmate, it can be anyone and you don't know who because you can't always see a mental illness.

I went to the movies tonight with two of my good friends, and at one point, one of them left about two thirds into the movie.

I figured at first that he was just going to the washroom, but as time went on, I got more and more worried about him.

I hid my phone so I wouldn't disturb anyone else and then I sent him a text to see if everything was alright.

He kept telling me that everything was fine, but when I saw him after the movie ended, I knew something was wrong.

I'm not going to go into detail about the story because it's not mine to tell, but in the long run, my friend was outside getting some air.

He told me that he thought it was better out there than in the theatre and that's okay.

He needed fresh air, he needed time to himself and that's okay, my other friend and I understood completely! Of course we wanted to make sure that he was okay, but we also don't want to push anything.

He texted me after we all got home and we talked about it and how he'll always have my support.

I was so proud of him because he was talking about it to me, he was reaching out and trusting me.

That's exactly what he have to do more. We need to trust the people in our lives a little bit more, we need to open up if we ever feel too stressed or worried or anything else and we need to reach out.

If you ever need someone to reach out to and don't know who, I will always accept emails and help out whoever and however I can at the email address onemoregirlonlineadvice@gmail.com

I can promise you that someone will always be there, whether it's myself or someone within your social group, willing to reach out to you too.

One More Girl, no longer online 

A Team That Helps & Supports You

I was in at the pool today doing some subbing hours and my first few classes were good, but then I had this one class with two little boys at a beginning level.

The smallest one said that he could go into the big pool and his mom agreed to that, so I took them to the big pool.

One of the lifeguards must know these guys because he signalled me to watch the smaller one.

After doing 25 meters in the big pool, he told me that he was starting to get tired.

Knowing that this couldn't end well, we all started another lank to head back towards the small pool and we'd swim there.

This kid started to get really upset, started to tell he that he wasn't tired, almost started to cry and I told him that we could go back in later.

He couldn't touch at the bottom of the little pool and he was constantly putting his head under for as long as he could, so I'd say that it was a good five minute battle before I got him to sit on the wall and wait while I did a drill with the other little boy.

Well, I didn't get him to sit on the side of the pool.

The same lifeguard who warned me about this little guy came by and said to him "She's a really fun teacher, but you have to listen to her, she knows what she's doing," and he finally sat on the wall two minutes after that.

I was really thankful that he came over and said those words to him because it really did help to get him to listen to me and he helped me get things under control faster than I would've on my own.

By the time that the class ended, I struggled so much with this kid that we didn't have time to go to the big pool, and I told him that, and he just stop and dropped.

He started to cry and he just sunk to the bottom of the pool.

Being frustrated with him and knowing that I had to get to my next class, I just picked him up by the armpits and got him out of the pool.

His mom saw me struggle the whole time with him and saw me have to physically drag him out of the water, and she started with "Are you not listening to your teacher? You're in big trouble," but I just handed his mom his report card and walked away.

My next class was a lot more cheerful because it was a class where the parents are in the water with toddlers and babies.

It's quite a cute class, but I never taught it before. I ran out of activities to do and songs to sing about halfway through the class, so I asked one of my supervisors to help me out and he agreed.

I was so happy when he came in with a new song, a few games and some toys.

You can't really teach them anything because they're too young, it's mainly about them being in the water and playing games and that wasn't something I was used to, so I was really thankful when my supervisor for in the water with me.

Being already worked up from my previous class, being able to go up and ask my supervisor for help was great.

Like I mentioned, I was running out of ideas and I started to get myself worked up again over that, so having my supervisor willing to get in the water with me almost gave me a flood of relief.

In a workplace such as the pool, it's really fun but it can get tense and stressful at times, and I felt as though today was a tense and stressful day.

Getting the chance to work with a team that will look it for you and help you in anyway they can, wether it's get in the water and teach a class with you, be a second authority figure when a kid is acting up or to help you even get them in the water.

I'm really lucky to be working with that staff that I'm currently apart of, and if you're working and feel to stressed or tense, don't be afraid to ask someone else for help.

Even your supervisors will be will into help you whatever the job it.

People say that when you start working, it's almost a little team. I didn't understand that until now and I don't think that I could describe the aquatic staff at the facility I work at as anything but a team.

I find that they really support you when you need it and that's something you can use to help you when you're struggling.


One More Girl, no longer online