the trick to surviving a rainy day is to

Put on a cute outfit and do your makeup all nice —you know what they say, look good, feel good!

Make yourself a big, nutritious breakfast, like a bowl of scrambled eggs, sautéed spinach, and cottage cheese; add a side of fresh blueberries to sweeten things up!

Take your coffee extra warm and add some pumpkin spice as you lean into the start of fall

Let your roommate drive you to school as you tell her all about how you could neither fall nor stay asleep on the first early night you’ve gotten in months

Text your sister; her boyfriend got suspended, so now she sits alone in class, and you left her first, so you might as well come back first

Call your mother, because she's been out and you’ve been out and you’ve barely spoken properly and you’re sure this is how she felt when you would only call her every 3 days and she’d hang up holding back tears

Grab a free coffee from the quiet study spot downtown; coffee is delicious, and even better when you don't have to pay for it!

Distract yourself with homework, so that way, at least you feel accomplished by the end of the day

Put your phone on do not disturb and then on airplane mode so that none of those totally pesky, bothersome texts from the people that you love most in this world distract you from the important matters at hand (homework)

Distract yourself from your homework with your phone, scrolling through pictures from the last time you were carefree, aged 12 —because everyone knows airplane mode does nothing but exacerbate nostalgia

Listen to “There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard” on repeat because you really resonate with the idea of pleading with the universe about getting “your turn”

Take pictures of all the pretty flowers on your way downtown and try not to think about how they’ll all die out soon because winter is coming

Write a poem on your way to class!

Count from 1-100, imagining cute, white sheep as pool floaties in your mind —not to help you fall asleep, but so that you can't drown in your own thoughts

Swallow your tongue, not because you’ve been talking too much (in fact, it’s 1PM and you’ve talked to nearly no one at all) but rather, to build a dam against the cries that want, so desperately, to come out

Skip the song and play “Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father” instead because you miss your grandpa and you, too, are good on spirit, warm-bodied, and full of good intentions even if you’re one of the last ones; two birds, one stone!!

Tap your feet against the staircase outside your last class of the day because of course you’re early, with nothing to do (that’s a lie, your list is huge)

Ignore your to-do list for “your own sake” and opt for doing what “feels right” in the moment (ignore the fact that this is a con, and an attempt to regain control)

Remind yourself that you work today, and that means (money) the company of good people and (money) the presence of differing books and (money) the feeling of fulfillment (money)!!!

Ask the nice lady at the stationary store what you can get your dad for his birthday, as a man who gets himself everything he wants when he wants it

Think about what your brother might want for Christmas, because you owe him something big

Stare at the 82.22% you have in your favorite psych class and try to think less about how you haven't gotten a B (much less a minus) in three years and more about how you’re going to fix it

Start planning out the apology speech you’ll give your parents in case you can’t; better safe than sorry (you will be, regardless)

Think about what you’re going to make for dinner —NO soup!!— because, now you’re an adult and that means you cook for one

Open the weather app for the 40th time, in hopes that the forecast has changed, and the sun will make herself known to you again

Watch the bus as it drives away from you slowly because you didn’t have it in you to walk any faster

Walk home, in the rain, and consider it exercise

Succumb to your thoughts, drown in the raindrops, because this was your fate all along no matter how hard you fought it .