I got the opportunity for a job in a university, and I am in the team which, as a friend of mine put it, “carries on the students’ lives”.

It is a rewarding job, as I get to help students with queries which are often related to psychological distress.

It is not an easy job, as I get a glimpse of how difficult a single human life can be. I get requests to extend coursework deadlines and to re-sit exams, and each request needs to have some sort of evidence attached, which I need to verify and file.

I knew it was not going to be easy, but I was not prepared for the amount of death certificates, grave diseases’ diagnoses, medication for depression and anxiety I had go through.

I felt like I was reviewing and filing the worst aspects of people’s lives. Someone asked how I do it. As someone who went through depression, I think that the desire to help others is part of me, and that alone helps me to go through it all.

Even if I go home and cry.

Even if I feel frustrated as all I can do is file the evidence.

Reading about this difficult lives makes me value mine even more, every day, just a little more.

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