We will continue our exploration of Wintreath's gaming scene in next week's edition. This week, I wanted to touch on an issue that I've been reading about a lot lately.

According to a recent Gallup Poll, nearly a third of US college students had considered dropping out in the past 6 months. The number one reason? Emotional stress, with at least 63% of 2-year students and 76% of 4-year students citing that as a reason. Last month, The Atlantic reported on an annual US CDC survey that showed the percentage of high school students feeling "persistently sad or hopeless" had nearly doubled in the last decade. That includes a whopping 76% of LGBTQ+ students. Around the same time, the New York Times daily newsletter covered the rise in violent crime and suggested "a growing sense of social discord and distrust" as a possible reason behind it.

Any way you look at it, things suck in the world today. We're facing a pandemic that likely won't ever be fully contained. Two of our members here in Wintreath are suffering through COVID as I write this. We're in the midst of an inflation crisis that's made financial security harder than ever to achieve, something I am struggling with myself. We're seeing the stagnation if not the outright fall of political norms, civility, and the institutions people have trusted for generations. Thanks to biased "news" sources and social media, fact and truth have become less than absolute for many. And I could go on and on.

So what can we do when the world is such a mess? Maybe we can't solve the world's problems, but we can be beacons of kindness and be there for each other. We can try to keep our own tempers in check and be understanding when others struggle with their own. We can put aside how we may feel about people and strive not to make their day any worse than it may already be. We can help out when we can, or at least be there to listen and support each other when we can't. In Wintreath, the #vent-chat Discord channel was set up for this exact purpose.

If you're struggling with feelings of sadness, anxiety, or depression, I hope that you'll reach out to somebody to at least have someone to share your feelings with and vent to. It can be a friend, a family member, a support hotline, or even a stranger. Just don't suffer alone. There's nothing worse than suffering alone, and I'm sure there's someone out there who would be happy you shared your feelings with them.

I'm reminded of the wisdom of Fred Rogers: "Imagine what our neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person." I think that goes for our online, offline, and make-believe neighborhoods too.

Stay kind, and stay frosty,
-Winter

The Greenlandic North, United Malay Federation, Uniopolis, Dashiki City, Socialist heartland republic, XXURBANXX, Moondinao, Sky point, The stigyan triumvirate, Esterwood, -icebergia, New montith, Taigaduulal