What It Means When You’re “Going Through It”

Breaking down the common modern phrase

Being a college student, adult and overall human being on this planet can be very difficult sometimes. Whether we can explain what we’re going through or not, we very well know that we are going through it.

“Going through it” is a phrase that has come up in today’s culture and is spelled on social media as “going thru it.” Regardless of how it’s spelled, it usually means a certain aspect of your life, or maybe everything in your life, is getting the best of you and you’re feeling weighed down.

“When I say I’m going through it, I’m just kind of not feeling it,” Xochilt Reyes said. Reyes, 22, believes the phrase has a lot of emotion behind it. Reyes said you can usually tell someone is going through it before they tell you that they are.

“You can hear it in their voice and see it in their face,” she said.

Emily Lopez, 20, is a third-year criminology and justice studies major at Humboldt State University. Lopez agreed when she is going through it, it’s a state of being overwhelmed or sad that makes everyday tasks hard to do.

“Usually when I’m going through it there are a lot of things going on around me and it makes things harder to do,” she said. “My mind is taking over everything.”

Going through it is just a simple way for us to share how we’re feeling without having to go super in-depth into how we’re actually feeling. It’s three words that explain why we might have been slacking. This three-word phrase says enough to where we are able to understand our friend either needs a little space or a little help to get through the day.

Although this phrase has a negative connotation, the brand Viva La Bonita, who is known for creating clothes to empower women of color, turned the phrase going thru it into growing through it. The growing implies things might be rough right now, but they lead to a learning experience from which we grow and move forward. We use the experience to handle futures in which we find ourselves going through it again.

Personally, it makes me look back at times where I was going through it and evaluate how I’ve grown from those times.

Going through it is an unpleasant experience, but one that we have all gone through at least once. The important thing to know is that you’re not alone and that almost everyone knows what you mean when you say you’re going through it. Resources are out there if you ask for them, and friends are almost definitely there when you need them.