We’re all just looking for the damn light switch

With graduation nearing, you might be feeling a bit stressed.

Or maybe not. Maybe you’ve already landed that dream job, are off to graduate school or you’ve got a perfectly mapped out five-year plan. Well, to that I say f--- you. Just kidding. That’s actually pretty awesome, and I’m genuinely happy for you, but for those of you — like myself — who feel like they’re on the verge of a nervous breakdown by just thinking of life after college, I’ve got some advice for you.

It’s okay to be stumbling around in the dark. Hear me out.

It’s like when your Uber drops you off at home after a night of drinking, and you open the door and it’s pitch black inside. Drunk you stumbles in trying to turn on a light, but you can’t find it. You have a vague outline of your house — hint: in this analogy, your life is the house — so you stumble in the general direction of the switch.

Sometimes you find a switch, but it’s not the right one, and it turns on the porch light, and that’s pretty useless to you right now, or you somehow flip on the garbage disposal. The gurgling definitely freaks you out, and you can see the porch while you’re at it, so now you’re a bit more aware of your surroundings, and those switches weren’t a useless detour after all. Go figure.

Maybe you find a switch but someone’s hand is over it, and they beat you to it. Bummer, but hopefully you know this person in your metaphorical house.

The point is, you’re still trying to find the light switch as you continue stumbling throughout your house despite your failed attempts and setbacks. You move on after your failures and onto new adventures — or in this case light switches.

Maybe you trip over some shoes and fall down. You’ve got a legitimate reason for not being able to find the switch — you’ve fallen. It’s a job interview you bombed, mental health struggles or a disastrous love life. Whatever it is, you’ve hit rock bottom.

We’ve all been there, and it’s not fun. For me, it was being diagnosed with dyslexia six months ago. Yeah, I tripped over a damn chair in the dark, and it sent me sprawling. A dyslexic reporter? The irony is not lost on me.

But, like me, even when someone tells you why you can’t find the damn light switch, you still can’t see it. The room is spinning, you feel like you’re going to throw up, and you still can’t see a flippin’ thing. Are you going to quit and stay on the floor? No, because you’re better than that, and you’re so close to your bed.

So you pull yourself up, and you feel for the wall as you slide your arms frantically up and down. Finally, you find the right switch. Your world is illuminated and accomplishment floods through you, and you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror. Sure you look like hell, but hey, you’re standing up, and you turned on the light by yourself.

It was a messy journey, but you’ve reached the destination, and that’s pretty much what life is. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t find your light switch.

We are all stumbling around in the dark, and that’s okay. Take a shot, and enjoy the ride.

Ariana Figueroa is a UF journalism senior and former editor-in-chief at the Alligator.