Two Things Can Be True at Once, Right?

Reflecting on holding joy and uncertainty at the same time.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the idea that two things can be true at once.

At its core, it means you can hold seemingly opposite emotions at the same time and both can be valid. You can feel genuinely happy and grateful for your everyday life, and still feel frustrated that you’re not where you imagined you’d be in your career. You can miss your hometown with your whole heart, and still fall in love with the city you’ve moved to. These feelings can coexist and one doesn’t cancel out the other.

For me, there have a been a few opposing emotions I have been juggling. I miss home but, I also love the life I have created in NYC. I feel lost and unsure about the future, yet I still feel a sense of happiness in my everyday. I wish my significant other and I were ready to take the next step and live together, but I’m also enjoying the process of learning how to live on my own. I worry about what people might think of me and the choices I’ve made, but I am also learning to trust myself and to keep moving forward anyway.

And even though these feelings can coexist, there are some days when things start to feel like they don’t and rather, one is trying to distract me from the hard things I am dealing with. Like the happiness I feel is a mask, like I am faking it to cover up the deeper sadness I feel.

2025 has been a rough year … for everyone. And at this point, I’m wondering how can I move forward? How can I make that happiness feel real?

How can I build a life I truly love again?

How can I move forward in a career that doesn’t want me?

How can I navigate a city that sometimes feels like it rejects me?

And, most importantly, how can I learn that I am enough?

Right now, I don’t know the answer to any of these. I feel sort of paralyzed by the fear that none of it will work out or that it will continue to just fall apart even more than it already has. And yes, of course I know one day this will all be nothing but a memory and I will look back and laugh (hopefully). But right now? Sitting in the weight of this fear and sadness? It’s hard.

I’m not sharing this to make anyone feel sad. I’m sharing it in the hopes that if someone, even just one person, feels this way too, they’ll know they’re not alone. That two things can be true at once, even when it doesn’t feel that way every day. That it’s normal to feel stuck, uncertain, or behind but at the same time, you can still be doing your best to stay hopeful. And that effort alone is something to be proud of.

Because more often than not, the good things, the things that are truly worth it, take time.

So if you’re in a season of waiting, of rebuilding, of figuring it all out as you go... I see you. I’m right there with you.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s enough for now.