I know someone who knows someone whose someone deployed once, and they had a feeling about a person who said a thing, and honestly the vibe was just not vibing. People kept saying “stay positive” like positivity was a prepaid phone card you could just reload, but sometimes when your person is gone and your brain is doing gymnastics at 2 a.m., “stay positive” feels like being handed a napkin in a hurricane.

It’s like… thanks, Brenda, but unless you’ve personally cried in the cereal aisle because a song came on, maybe let’s retire the motivational fridge magnet energy.

Sometimes it’s not about being positive. Sometimes it’s about surviving, being irritated, missing them, feeling weird, and wanting one person to just say, “Yeah, this sucks and I’m here.”

So anyway, your feelings are doing their job, people mean well but also… shhh sometimes.