In The Midst of A Storm: How Comfort Has Infinite Definitions by Mia

In The Midst of A Storm: How Comfort Has Infinite Definitions by Mia - March 2026 Scholarship Essay

I believe I was around the age of five when I first heard the word "comfort." I was at a school assembly, sitting on the cold ground of the gym. There was a lady, our school counselor, giving a presentation. In a big room full of hundreds of children, there may have been about a few dozen actually listening to her words. I, funnily enough, was not one of those kids. While I stared at the endless pattern on the hard ground, my ears suddenly tuned its attention back into the ongoing presentation. A word stuck out to me as she spoke. It emanated warmth, so much so that the harsh cold floor against my skin suddenly didn’t bother me anymore as I found myself fascinated with this new word. Comfort.

Since then, the word has followed me everywhere. My goal was to make an impact on people in the best way possible; in my eyes, this began with helping those in need. When my friends were stressed, I’d give them gentle words of solace, I’d remind them that there's always a storm before a rainbow, and, a lot of the time, it seemed to work–up until a year ago.

Given my kind nature, I’ve never struggled with making friends, online or in real life. In fact, I had more online friends than real friends, and I’d spend a lot of my spare time bonding with them by playing games with them. At some point, I had been introduced to someone on the internet. They shared similar interests, acted similarly to me… it was like staring into a mirror. After a few weeks of getting to know each other better, we decided to start voice calling each other while we played games together. I quickly adopted a common routine of going to school, doing homework, and hanging out with this friend. The routine continued on for weeks, almost an entire month.

Despite how much we spoke, we never really took time to talk about the vulnerable sides of our emotions or the internal and external issues we’d experience day-to-day. I initially thought nothing of this. Nobody is obligated to share everything about their life, and certainly not their personal issues. However, I eventually started noticing this friend becoming less and less full of life. I tried to brush it off, but I couldn’t help myself from asking what was wrong when I noticed the slightest hint of sadness in their voice one day. Naturally, I expected them to admit something small, perhaps regarding school or slowly falling out with a friend. I’ll never forget when my simple question suddenly made the other end of the phone burst into a fit of tears.

Naturally, my first instinct was to comfort them. Afterall, what else was I born to do? But despite my efforts, the sobs on the other end of the phone persisted. I had never felt more useless than in that moment, sitting frozen in time yet my mind racing faster than my heartbeat. What was I supposed to do now? What kind of friend was I if I couldn’t even get them to calm down? I’d been entrusted with the vulnerability of someone I loved, and I had proven myself incapable of handling that level of trust. At least, that’s what I thought they’d think.

While I sat stumped and at a loss of words, they eventually calmed down, and their sobs became less brutal. They apologized for crying, to which I immediately assured them that I didn’t mind. I quickly apologized for not being able to help, for sitting there doing nothing, for not trying hard enough (despite how I did the most I knew how to do). Instead of resenting me for not being able to help however, they said that I did help them, and that me being there with them was enough. They didn’t need words of encouragement or to be told that things would be okay in the end, they simply needed someone there with them, someone who would notice when they were upset.

It was only then, when we both bathed in the silence after, that I realized something about myself; I had been completely misinterpreting what comfort entails for my entire life. Comfort has no bounds. It's not just words of affirmation, but it's also not just a pat on the back. It’s presence. Your words will have no weight if someone can't feel you there, can't feel that you care. Comfort can hold you while crying about the parts of you that you deem unlovable, or it can be on the other end of the screen sending you videos of cute animals to distract you from the clouds darkening your sky. Comfort can be anybody and anything; it all comes down to what helps you see the rainbow colors shine through the rain, even if it's just a little bit more than before.