drama queen

what a week. for some reason, it's really been pouring these days. without talking about specifics, amongst my friends and family, it seems like people are fragile and struggling constantly, even in the moments when you think others (and even yourself) are ok. and in the moments when you think you are struggling alone and are isolated, by sharing with one other person, you realize that your problems are not so uncommon and people understand struggle and relate so intimately to brokenness and imperfection and weakness. those traits really are universal.

my prayers go out to the women in my life who are struggling. there are such conflicting messages to be strong and independent and to put up a front, when inside we are broken and hurt and so mad that we're not as strong as we thought.

on a completely separate note, the week started out well. i had an hour long talk, which i've never given before, and was really surprised at the positive response. in front of an intimidating crowd, i got a lot of questions and positive feedback. immediately after my talk, a professor sat me down and we talked about my project for 10 minutes. it was a really good experience. i still hate giving talks tho. ^^