There are sequences of events in the flow of time, instants that happen and strike hard, whether it be getting your driver’s permit or signing your name in black ink on a formal document or even walking through the gates of high school on your first day of freshman year.

All of these events do one thing: they create a bridge of reality that brings you back to here and now.

You may have been working on your homework or reading a book, but moments like these don’t wait. They strike hard, sending anchors of shock and stress deep into the consciousness. The event may not take long or even be that big of a deal, but within that moment, you get to take a step back and realize “Oh, crap, I’m getting older” or “Time is passing around me, whether I want it to or not.”  

You can react two different ways to this experience: some people have a mental breakdown, while some people take it head-on.

Sometimes you just want to avoid it all, to slip into another world where you can shed your worries and fears become a warrior, almost feel invincible. Nothing can touch you in your utopia, whether it is a place where dragons rule among men and the Fae frolic, or a land far in the future where cars fly and hunger does not exist. It’s a no-brainer that when there are worlds like this–worlds of books, movies, games and imagination–you will dive in headlong.

While hiding or escaping to far-off fairy tale lands seems fun and inviting, it’s almost like holding your head underwater in the middle of a war zone, then coming up for air, only to have to dodge a bullet and keep moving forward with life.  

At the end of the day, you realize that, as a human, there comes a time that you have to grow up and face reality.

The trick is to balance both worlds, to bring reality and fantasy in unison. If, by balancing both worlds, you find a way to channel stress, then you gain strength–strength that will support you the next time one of those special instants strikes hard.