Frustration

Hi there! My name is Frustration. I'm that tight, hot, bothered feeling you get when things just won't go your way. You might feel me when you're trying to build something and a piece won't fit, or when you can't seem to beat a tough level in a video game. I show up to let you know that something is standing between you and your goal, and it can feel very annoying.

Just the other day, on the 15th of March, I paid a visit to a boy named Leo. He was working hard to finish a 500-piece puzzle of a tiger. He had already put all the edge pieces together, but the middle was a confusing jumble of orange and black stripes. He tried one piece, then another, and another. When the fifth piece in a row didn't fit, I started to bubble up inside him. His hands balled into fists, and he felt a strong urge to sweep the whole puzzle right onto the floor. That’s me, making a difficult task feel completely impossible.

But here is a secret you should know about me: I'm not the boss of you. Leo felt me getting stronger and stronger, but then he remembered what he could do. He stood up from his chair, took three slow, deep breaths, and walked to the kitchen for a glass of water. By taking a short break from the puzzle, he gave me a chance to shrink down. When he came back, he saw the puzzle differently. His mind was clearer. He noticed a tiny, specific stripe on one piece that he had missed before. He picked it up, and it fit perfectly! This is my real job: to make you stop and think about a new way to solve a problem.

So, you see, I'm not really a 'bad' feeling. I'm actually a sign that you care a lot about what you're doing and that you are being challenged to grow. Every time you work through my difficult feelings instead of giving up, you build a superpower called resilience. I continue to help people today by teaching them the importance of patience and problem-solving. Overcoming me leads to one of the best feelings in the world: the pride of knowing you didn't quit and you figured it out all by yourself. I learned that facing a challenge is the best way to get stronger.