It’s a little bit exhausting.

 

And to pretend that it’s not would be a stupid lie.

 

A lot of female athletes, and a lot of women in general, are really fucking positive and cheerful. I don’t know if you noticed this, but I’m not a cheerful person. I have nothing against those specific people that are but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with knowing that life isn’t all sunshine, butterflies and happy faces all the time.

 

Our need to insist that people remain cheerful, that happiness is the best policy, hurts everyone. It belittles the real difficulties people go through everywhere, as though it suggests that if they were just more positive things would be better. There is value in recognizing and accepting that sometimes shit just sucks, not in a ‘there’s a lesson to be learned here’, ‘hard times make us stronger’ kind of way, but simply because that’s life. Being happy all the time cheapens actual happiness.

 

So, yes, shit kinda sucks right now (for lots of reasons related to many things), but I’m able to recognize that and know that it’s not even close to as bad as things have been at other points in life and I survived those points. And by knowing it sucks and not trying to cover it up with false sunshine I’m not put off when things aren’t amazing. And I’ve never been more excited just to finish a run without anything too bad happening.