{"id":11297,"date":"2021-02-03T10:12:29","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T16:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/?p=11297"},"modified":"2021-10-30T14:59:11","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T19:59:11","slug":"alexa-shuffle-rex-orange-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/2021\/02\/03\/alexa-shuffle-rex-orange-county\/","title":{"rendered":"alexa, shuffle rex orange county"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>i had a rough week. monday started off with missing assignments, then ended with a write-up from the person i never thought would do it. tuesday was when the realization (or anxiety, i&#8217;m still not sure) set in that i don&#8217;t spend enough time with certain friends, but not by my own accord.<\/p>\n<p>i lost a few people that night, and it was all downhill from there. i laid in my friend&#8217;s bed, sobbing, for almost an hour and a half that night. had we not been assigned a curfew, i likely would have stayed there all night.<\/p>\n<p>wednesday, i didn&#8217;t really have the energy to do anything. one of my closest friends came up to give me a hug in the morning, and i broke down in tears.<\/p>\n<p>thursday, i had a great day &#8211; fantastic, even &#8211; i was on top of the world, i was walking with my shoes clicking against the concrete, and i was wearing the red leather jacket i hadn&#8217;t had the heart to pull out of my wardrobe yet this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>thursday evening, i took a walmart trip with three friends. on the way there, the driver let me play every single song on my sad playlist. that little indie girl who despises the sound of a southern drawl let me play &#8220;you promised&#8221; by brantley gilbert at the highest volume, and the girl in the back seat had absolutely no problem with my tears collecting in a pool on her jeans. when we finally got to walmart, i spent every dollar i couldn&#8217;t afford that was in my bank account, and i regret not one second of it. someone else pushed the cart and i stocked up on comfort items and school supplies. i bought $50 worth of food that i knew i wouldn&#8217;t eat and $15 on an overpriced valentine&#8217;s day stuffed sloth. i named him buddy.<\/p>\n<p>thursday night, i crashed. it was like&#8230; thomas rhett &#8220;crash and burn&#8221; type situation; when i went down, my entire world came down with me. i hadn&#8217;t showered in three days, my hair looked like it could be invaded by the US military at any given moment, and i&#8217;d taken care of my scent, but that doesn&#8217;t mean that i was clean. two of my friends pulled me onto the tile floor of my bathroom, locked me inside without my phone, and stayed there with me until i took a shower. one of them offered to wash my hair.<\/p>\n<p>she looked at me in the eyes and said, &#8220;we&#8217;re not doing this because we feel bad for you or whatever else, we&#8217;re doing this because we love you,&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>and that was the exact moment i smeared my mascara-stained tears off of my face, then uncrossed my legs and picked myself up from the bathroom floor. it wasn&#8217;t until later that i found out i hadn&#8217;t completely rinsed out the shampoo from my hair, so it was dry right behind my ears for the next little bit of time.<\/p>\n<p>friday, my brother came to pick me up early from school. we stopped by the gas station near school, so i picked up a stick of beef jerky. i only ate half of it. a few friends from my old school offered to stay with me that night, as did a few from further north. it was 1:28am when my friend offered to make a 3 hour drive just to make sure i was okay.<\/p>\n<p>sunday, i came back to school, and everything was better than we&#8217;d left it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>on tuesday, my friends offered to bring their stuffed animal to class with them. i had mentioned that i wanted to, and they stepped up so i wouldn&#8217;t be alone in my endeavor. it was a small gesture, and it still means so much.<\/p>\n<p>i tell this story from the perspective of a girl with anxiety, but one with such good friends that she&#8217;s slowly letting her guard down, and trusting that they have her best interest at heart. it takes a lot of love to separate a person from their anxiety, nearly impossible, but some incredible people have made it happen, and i am eternally grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>i had a rough week. monday started off with missing assignments, then ended with a write-up from the person i never thought would do it. tuesday was when the realization (or anxiety, i&#8217;m still not sure) set in that i don&#8217;t spend enough time with certain friends, but not by my own accord. i lost &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/2021\/02\/03\/alexa-shuffle-rex-orange-county\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;alexa, shuffle rex orange county&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11297"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11297"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11311,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11297\/revisions\/11311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}