The priest, living his life for God, prays for the world for hours on end with a faith that knows no bounds. The high school student, overloaded with too many responsibilities, falls off the wire trying to balance a job, schoolwork, and a girlfriend. The grandmother, nearing the end of her life, waits and waits for her son to visit her one last time. The priest gives up tonight, gives in to worldly pleasures to ease the weight of the world, only Sunday. The high school student contemplates opening the floodgates on his wrists tonight to distract himself from the weight of living, only Sunday. The grandmother fades away never seeing her son for the fortieth straight year, only Sunday.

The football player, fresh off the best game of his life, drinks far too much in far too little time. The writer, struggling to put the pieces of the puzzle of life together, stares at an empty computer screen waiting for words that will never come. The child, not knowing why there is so much yelling coming from downstairs, hides away in the safety of her blankets. The football player loses control of his car and rams straight into a family of four coming home from a night out, only Monday. The writer slams her laptop shut in frustration and breaks down in tears, only Monday. The child prays to anyone who’s listening to make the fighting in her house stop, only Monday.

The businessman, blinded by ambition, strives for a perfection he will never reach. The waitress, whose life always seems to be taking the wrong turn, works and works and works for just one more shot. The politician, who lies to the country for a living, finally failed to keep his two separate families from knowing about the other. The businessman drowns in alcohol tonight, only Tuesday. The waitress goes home to a small apartment in the middle of the city and cries herself to sleep for the third time this week, only Tuesday. The politician picks out his best suit from the confines of his motel room after his entire life fell from beneath him, only Tuesday.

The teacher, exhausted by her job, comes home to an empty house to match her empty life. The musician, having just performed for thousands, collapses in his hotel room holding the bag of drugs that will temporarily bring him happiness. The accountant, living locked into a routine, stays up far too late trying to find the one in a city of millions. The teacher falls on the floor unable to get up due to a lack of food, only Wednesday. The musician overdoses on artificial joy and won’t be found until tomorrow, only Wednesday. The accountant made too much of an advance and woke up in an alley with a pounding headache and a broken arm, only Wednesday.

The doctor, saving lives every day of her life, begins to wonder if she can keep her own body alive. The actor, finally hitting his stride, receives a phone call that brings everything toppling into a pile of rubble. The model, constantly being complimented on her looks, looks at the plate of food before her debating if she should eat. The doctor looks at the pills in her medicine cabinet knowing exactly how much would flat line her, only Thursday. The actor breaks every speed law trying to drive across the country to get to his brother who was recently hospitalized, only Thursday. The model skips another meal in the hopes that she’ll see herself the way the cameras do, only Thursday.

The drug dealer, one mistake away from being locked up, continually goes through the motions trying to make enough money to send his little girl to college. The CEO, internally overflowing with corruption, makes yet another bad deal in order to get even more money for personal gain. The policeman, never knowing if he’ll be able to go home alive each night, goes through the motions of chasing another criminal. The drug dealer hides out in an abandoned building in an effort to get home before the sun rises, only Friday. The CEO tries to sleep with the wrenching pain of guilt and shame, only Friday. The policeman gets another call of an armed robbery and he wonders if this will be his last, only Friday.

The mother, left alone after all her children have grown up, doesn’t know what to do with the remainder of her life. The janitor, spending his life cleaning up the messes of others, doesn’t know where to begin with cleaning the mess of his own life. The therapist, spending day after day helping others with their problems, doesn’t know who to talk to about her own personal issues. The mother searches and searches to no avail for a reason to continue living, only Saturday. The janitor can’t even begin to address the problems in his life so he doesn’t even try, only Saturday. The therapist looks through social media wondering where her old friends and family went, only Saturday.

The priest thinks of the numerous lives he has impacted and brought to God and finds forgiveness in the pure nature of God. He wakes up the next day with a rejuvenated faith and passion for evangelism.

The high school student looks through his phone at pictures of good times with friends and incredible nights with his girlfriend and finds hope in the memory of better days. He puts the knife down and realizes that things are not as bad as they seem.

The grandmother gets a long awaited phone call from her son and finds peace in the final moments of her life. She goes to sleep one last time with a smile of content painted across her face.

The football player offers infinite apologies to the family, thankful that the only injury was to himself and finds reality in the scene of the wreckage. He arrives in the hospital with a new perspective on life.

The writer picks up her favorite book she has ever read and finds calmness within the pages and the ink. She opens up her laptop and finally lets the words flow form her brain and onto the paper.

The child clutches her favorite stuffed animal as her parents hold her tight apologizing for the recent struggles they have had and she finds silence in the loving hold of her mother and father. She sleeps without a bad dream for the first time in a week.

The businessman wakes up at three in the morning and gazes out upon the city from his apartment and finds sobriety in the midst of his most painful night. He goes to work the next morning with a new perspective on life.

The waitress stares at the ceiling thinking about how her life got to this point and finds a future in the never-let-die attitude she was known for. She enrolls in college classes ready to learn and start the next chapter of her life.

The politician looks at the text from his first wife that says I still love you and finds a second chance in the loving and forgiving nature of woman he had always loved. He goes to church with her after the trial and begins a complete turnaround of his life.

The teacher reads the numerous letters from students and parents that she has received over the years and finds motivation in the praise of the impacted lives. She begins to kick start her own ability to help others find success.

The musician wakes up to his best friend shaking him awake saying how worried he was when his phone calls went unanswered and finds authenticity in the one person who seemed to truly care. He goes back into the studio with a new style that is thankful for life.

The accountant is found by a random stranger and she takes him back to his apartment to tend to his wounds and he finds a love for humanity in the kindness of a passerby. In an hour he leaves the man’s apartment full of grace.

The doctor slams the medicine cabinet shut and finds the numerous pictures and letters she has received from people whom she had given new life to and finds satisfaction in her work. She takes a moment to write back to all the patients who had ever written her a thank you note.

The actor pulls into a gas station and gets a call from his brother and rejoices in the fact that his brother will be okay he just got into a minor automobile accident and finds life in the area of potential death. He continues to drive to make a long overdue visit to his family.

The model remembers her childhood promise to never let others shape her opinion of herself and finds acceptance within her own body. She sits at the table and digs into the meal that her wonderful boyfriend had made.

The drug dealer realizes he had to make drastic changes to insure the future of his daughter and looks at the stars and finds salvation in the heavens. He goes home tonight and pulls out his father’s old bible and reads the most amazing story he had ever read.

The CEO wakes up in a cold sweat and cancels all the bad deals she had ever made and finds true wealth in the feeling of the truth. She sits on her balcony and begins to plan the change of her company.

The policeman converses with his partner and they discuss the danger and he finds safety in the unwavering dedication of the entire police force. He no longer fears the night he won’t go home because he no longer believes that night will ever happen.

The mother gets a text from her oldest saying he misses home and she finds purpose in the fact that she will always be a mother. She tells her children that they are always welcome back home and she will always love them unconditionally.

The janitor looks at his life and then thinks of the potential he could have and finds purity in the future. He begins to slowly clean his life up with a vigor he had never had before.

The therapist contacts some old friends and they make a plan to get together after all this time and she finds belonging in her friends she always had. For the first time all year she goes to sleep without a single worry plaguing her mind.

The author goes through the hard times, he goes through the great times, he feels the lowest of the low, he feels like he’s on top of the world, he lives the ups and downs that make up his life. He projects himself into the characters of his stories and they, like him, go through just another week, another experience, which starts off wrong but can drastically change due to one singular event. They, like him, feel sadness. They, like him, feel happiness. They, like him, feel hopelessness. They, like him, feel hope. They, like him, experience life.

You need to get help, is what they said

I’ll be fine don’t worry about it

But sleepless nights add up quick

And a lack of smiles is something people notice

They said you wouldn’t be able to fix it on your own

It’s not a problem I’ll be okay

But they notice your tired eyes

And they can hear the sadness in your voice

You need to get help, is what they said

And after constantly saying that you were fine

You wound up in a hospital after trying to take your life

And then you realized that they were right

For a good portion of my life I was embarrassed about where I was from, it wasn’t until I got to high school that I really started to embrace a major part of my identity. When I was only one, I was adopted from Russia and I’ve lived in Maryland for all but that one year.

For almost fourteen years I thought that being adopted was weird; in my mind it was a bad kind of different. Whenever someone would bring it up, I would avoid any questions and change the subject as soon as possible. My embarrassment and fear of being different caused me to ignore where I was from. I was like this until the summer going into the freshman year, when I took a missions trip to Ukraine that completely changed the way I viewed myself.

In the spring of my eighth grade year my father asked me if I would potentially be open to going on a missions trip to Ukraine over the summer. I told him I wanted to go, I wanted to see a country that was very similar to where I was born. He told me that the group we would travel with would help run a week long Christian-oriented camp at an orphanage. We were going to spend the entire week there, playing with the kids and helping the orphanage staff with whatever they needed. This was it, this was as close to where I was born as I was going to get.

The road to the orphanage was long, narrow, and filled with seemingly endless potholes. I was nervous, sitting in the back of the van. With me, in the van, was my dad, two other people from my church with whom I would form incredible bonds, and two translators who were also helping out at the camp. The day we arrived was a little awkward, the language barrier proving to be much more difficult than I had anticipated, but I soon got into the gist of things.

I was the only student in the group, everyone else who was helping at the camp was significantly older. It took less than a day for all the kids at the orphanage to make this connection and by the end of the first day I was constantly swarmed by kids ranging from three years old to seventeen. It was the most fun I had in a long time, everyone was so full of energy and it made all of my nerves go away.

Throughout the week I formed many friendships with numerous different kids, even though I could really only say their names and make extravagant hand gestures in an attempt to communicate. I specifically remember one young boy by the name of Arthur. The first thing he did when he saw me every day was attempt to climb me as if I was a jungle gym. He was always smiling and never failed to brighten my day. One day, as I was passing a Frisbee around with Arthur, my dad came up to me and told me that Arthur reminded him of me when I was a kid. It was this sentence that completely changed my entire perspective on my status as an adopted child.

Leaving that orphanage was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do, especially with the knowledge that I’ll probably never see any of those kids again. We drove away and to the capital city of Kiev, and that night we were given a tour of the city, only days after riots had ravaged it. That night I thought about who I was, and when I finally came back to America I was proud and ready to share the most important detail of my life; I was adopted from an exotic country and into an incredible life.