Last year, as a part of a project we had on Etched In Stone, I had a couple interviews with a young sophomore named MacKenzie Graham. Needless to say, looking at our records, we never completed or published her story. And that, in itself, is a plain enough reason to report on it now.

This girl struck me as calm, sweet, quiet, and well behaved at first sight. She was cautious, carefully watching our group from her own comfortable distance, and let everything pass her with a polite smile and a light laugh. Unbeknownst to the crew, she had a little history behind that sweet smile. This girl, among some other familial happenings, was an insomniac. She told us of how she stayed up all night, every night, unable to get herself to sleep.

As she told us her story and all the details on what she would do during those long, quiet hours, I tried putting her shoes on for myself. I was struck with an overwhelming crash of loneliness and somber disconnection. If I think I’m alone on those off nights when I stay up past my family’s usual hours, how would it feel like to spend nearly half of my days surrounded by silence and darkness?

And yet, this young girl looked at us with wide eyes, smiling and laughing every chance she got. What I’ve seen of her in the halls this year is identical to my original assumptions. She appears to her friends as a carefree and friendly girl. Easy to trust, even easier to get along with; it’s as if she has no problems in the world.

Now, this mini article on Miss Graham wasn’t just to finally publish her story and try to make amends, but to prove a point of mine.

It is never too late to start.

This could apply to anything and everything in life: that History project due on Friday, connecting with your mother, learning how to play the guitar, looking for colleges and applying for scholarships, anything. No matter what it is, right now is the perfect time to start.

See, what I’ve had problems with throughout my entire academic experiences, throughout my entire life, is my inability to start on time. Being late on deadlines I make for myself creates a cycle of becoming guilty that I’ve not started yet, procrastinating as a result, and becoming even more guilty the more I procrastinate, causing me to procrastinate longer. This cycle paralyzes people into nearly complete immobility in not only the task in question, but in other every-day activities. Eventually, you don’t even want to get out of bed.

However, a favorite tale of mine tells of a stress manager who stood in front of his class and held up a glass of water, asking how heavy it was. Expecting a lecture on “seeing the glass half full” and such, they threw out guesses of things such as six or seven ounces. The lecturer explained that the weight of the cup wasn’t as much relevant as the amount of time he held it. If he holds it for a minute, it doesn’t weigh much; if he holds it for an hour, it weighs a significant amount; and if he holds it until the sun sets, his arm would become numb and paralyzed from the stress.

Long story short, there’s no shame in holding onto your stresses. Everyone holds onto things for longer than they should, using their tardiness as an excuse to prolong their torment. But eventually, you need to let it go and just start. There’s no use in waiting longer, and there’s no harm in starting right now.  Just set down the cup.