11/02/2026
How’s Life Lately
How’s life lately?
People ask it lightly,
like it’s small talk,
like it won’t crack something open in my chest.
Life lately is waking up before the sun,
already tired, already thinking—
about lesson plans, unfinished papers,
about students who need more than I can give
and deadlines that don’t care how heavy my head feels.
Life lately is a house that’s loud with silence,
a family hurting in different corners,
everyone carrying pain in their own way,
and me standing in the middle
trying to be the strong one
when I’m quietly falling apart too.
Life lately is responsibility stacked on responsibility,
chalk dust on my hands,
expectations on my back,
smiling in front of a classroom
while my heart is somewhere else,
counting breaths,
counting reasons not to quit.
And love—
love is both my shelter and my test.
I have a girlfriend who sees my exhaustion,
who holds my hand when my grip on life loosens,
who reminds me I am more than my failures,
more than my fatigue.
Sometimes I fear I don’t show enough,
that my tiredness speaks louder than my love.
There are nights I ask myself
how much a person can carry
before something breaks.
There are mornings I answer myself
by getting up anyway.
Because despite it all,
I am still here.
Still fighting.
Still choosing to stand
when it would be easier to sit down and disappear.
I am tired—
not the kind of tired sleep can fix,
but the kind that lives in the bones.
Yet even with shaking knees,
I stand strong and tall,
not because life is easy,
but because giving up is harder.
So how’s life lately?
It’s heavy.
It’s messy.
It hurts.
But it’s also proof
that I am surviving,
that even in exhaustion,
I am not done yet.
