Blue used to be my favorite color.

Blue, most significantly, symbolizes sadness and despair.

It was cool, popular to like blue.

​

Blue is a great color, but I was not happy when I liked blue.

I liked blue because that was how I felt, all the time.

​

Blue.

 

Although I truly enjoyed the friendships I made during middle school, my extremely positive attitude was superficial. I appeared to have a bright personality on the outside, but really, I was confused. I wondered if I was the only one faking it all the time. Of course, I had hobbies that made me truly happy, yet they only kept me engaged temporarily. Things like going out with my friends or spending stress free-time over weekends with my family kept me happier for a bit longer, but the joy I felt would subside within a day or two.

​

Being sad and blue are important, too.

Beautiful blue things exist. The ocean, blue jays, blueberries, cornflowers.

But an overload of blue is much worse than an overload of yellow.

​

Yellow symbolizes warmth, brightness,

feeling truly happy, and satisfied.

​

I wanted to be more yellow,

but I had absolutely no idea how.

No one really taught me how to enjoy every moment I'm alive, and feel like my life is enough.

​

Throughout my confusing yet needed journey in trying to find a healthy balance between blue and yellow, I realized that, in basic terms, happiness is a choice; technically, you can choose to be happy, and you can choose to not be happy. That is pretty much all it is, on a deeper and more complex level. Having the drive to make a positive emotional change in  your life is one thing, but actually doing it is completely different.

 

There are numerous courses in middle and high school that teach you about how to cope with mental health issues, but by that time, the damage would already have been done. "Shades of Yellow" is meant to educate younger audiences on long-term happiness so we don't have to struggle to prevent excessive stress, sadness, and emotional problems in older ones.

 

As cliché as it might sound, "you only live once" is really something to live by. Enjoy the ordinary, feel more than satisfied with your life, and find what makes you, you.

 

Stay sunny,

Asmi.