For my school, I’ve been writing a lot of random little snippets of writing that aren’t connected whatsoever to anything in particular. So I thought I’d just put them up here. Here we go!

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When you dive into the water, it suffocates you. You open your eyes, attempting to see through the swirling black waters. You flail your arms frantically, kicking your legs, trying to find the surface. You can’t breathe. When you inhale, water floods your lungs. Then you drown.

You sit up in bed, gasping for air, when you realize it was a dream. You suck in as much air as possible, still gasping from the realization of the terror called a nightmare. You look around the room, searching for the light switch. It’s dark. You can’t see anything. Collapsing on your pillows, you fall back in bed and stare up at the ceiling.

It was a dream. But the thought of drowning haunts you. The thought of your lifeless, limp body floating to the floor, covered in the brown silt.Your body kicks up a cloud of dust and hits the watery floor.

No. It’s over. It’s done. The dream is over.

But it doesn’t feel like it is. Schoolwork, faith, family, friends, it’s all drowning you, consuming you. The pressure of being the perfect Christian kid without problems, getting good grades. It’s just as overwhelming as the hardcore pressure of the water.

You feel tears leak out from the corners of your eyes. You’re not typically a crier, but the dream hit way too close to home.

The thoughts in your mind run around, chasing your sanity. You think about the feeling of drowning and it brings back memories of your depression, loneliness, and anxiety.

The depression hasn’t hit in a while, but you’re scared it will soon. You haven’t felt loneliness in a while, but you’re scared you will soon. Anxiety hasn’t crawled into your heart recently, but you’re scared it will manage to find its way in soon.

Is there an end to this? This drowning feeling? The suffocating hurt and fear?

You sit up in bed, patting the bedside table for your phone. You unlock it to find a bunch of alerts from your Instagram. You open them and find lots of posts from your perfectly happy friends. They have pictures with their boyfriends or girlfriends, pictures of their super-highlighted Bibles. They look perfect.

You turn off your phone when you hear something. Silence. Wait. What?

Then there’s a whisper. Not just a whisper, but a Whisper. From Him.

Hey. Listen to Me. Don’t pay attention to your phone. Pay attention to Me. I’m here. Talking to you.

You stare into the darkness in front of you in disbelief. Is that—no way, this only happens in the Bible or crazy stories. But it’s happening to you.

“God?” you say hoarsely.

You’re not drowning. You’re merely trying to hold your head above the water. But I AM here. I will be your life line, If only you will take ahold of Me. Will you take My hand?

You nod frantically. What can you say to that? To the God of the freaking Universe? “Thank You,” is all that you can manage. But you know that He hears your every thought. He knows what you want and need to say but can’t put it into words.

He knows you better than you know yourself. And that alone is enough to keep your head over the water.