Intensity.

Photo by Ian on Unsplash

“Your brain must be a very intense place.” The first time I read these words, I couldn’t help but relate to them so much. I have thoughts running in my head practically all day long. I might be doing something and a thought just pops into my head that there is something better I ought to be doing. It will be a full ten minutes before I can catch another train of thought. People sometimes refer to it as ‘overthinking’. I used to give it a similar name, but now I’m not so sure. Isn’t thinking an intricate part of being a human being?

I think it’s a way for us to sugarcoat things. Instead of acknowledging that we are worriers, we give it a less worrying name. Overthinking vs worrying. The latter is construed to be a negative emotion and no one wants to associate with it. Overthinking, on the other hand, is something we can even tout to our friends and no one will think any less of us. We water things down because in doing so, we presume it will make the thing less real; less tangible. It’s classic human behavior. But then again, who can say they have the right to generalize every person’s way of life into one flimsy adjective?

So I’ll be the first to admit that I am a worrier. I worry all the time. I worry about life after college. I worry about death; mine and my loved ones. I worry that something catastrophic is about to happen, every minute of every day. I worry about dying young with “unfulfilled…