There are three words that have found themselves manifested in my life for the past month or so: Set me free. Lately, I’ve been a bit irritated with myself. I work hard, sleep less, eat sparingly, and work eternally. Here’s my list of occupations, and it’s a long one: I work for my university’s Campus Ministries, I’m a teacher’s assistant for my advisor in my major, I’m an actor that entertains other students for a big production done twice a semester, I’m a senator for my school’s Student Association, I’m an active member of a community of people around the city that want to eradicate race issues in Chattanooga, I sit on multiple committees, I take upwards of fifteen credit hours, and I’m a boyfriend who’s nearly five thousand miles away from his girlfriend. I’m a workaholic to say the least. Here’s the thing about being me: I hold myself to an unrealistic, romantic standard in which I accept nothing but perfection, and anything less than that is a failure and disappointment. It’s imprisonment of the mind, and I, like so many of you, am chained to the walls of my perfectionism. Today, Phil’s Philosophy is self-help, and yes, maybe it’s a little long, but perhaps a little more necessary. Depression is something that scares most people, and I’m not one to put a label on myself, but it is what it is.

Welcome back to Phil’s Philosophies! Today’s blog is a journal excerpt from my time in Cancun, Mexico as a short-term missionary this past summer. Mission work is another one of my philosophies, and maybe it might inspire you to try something similar: be uncomfortable.