As I witness contempt ebb and flow in and out, I can’t help but wonder how life is continuously progressing, like a swift shift from fall to spring. It feels as if I have spanned through the last twenty years of my life in the blink of an eye. And here I stand, at a crossroads, trying to contemplate my existence and who I am.
The moments always seem to fleet and time seems to pass like tiny grains of sand slipping through my fingers. Entering the 20s is a terrifying era, to say the least. As responsibilities begin to beckon at your doorstep and crucial decisions find you at every crossroads, we feel as if we’re lagging behind.
I, like many others, developed a feeling of not doing enough. After all, when everyone around you endorses hustling for 25 hours in a day which only has 24—life seems tough. It becomes even more difficult when you start comparing yourself to others, letting the insecurities creep in through the tiny vaults of your subconscious.
A pang of anxiety hits you upon witnessing others’ clarity towards life. Often, there’s pressure to do well because of the bar set by your elder siblings, cousins, and sometimes, your parents. And sometimes, it’s the expectation we have from ourselves that drives us to an edge. There’s a fear of failure and rejection and a constant dilemma of “Who am I?” and “Am I doing enough?”
There are days when all this gets to us, more than you or I would like to admit.
But here’s a hard pill we all need to swallow:
Wallowing over what might happen next never helps. It only steals more from the moments we have now.
I don’t say this because I have it all “figured out.” Trust me when I say I don’t. I’m still figuring out what I want to do and who I want to be. And I know for a fact that there is still a long, long way to go.
But hey, we came this far and we’ll cruise through again.
So, while we take our own sweet time to realize and use the potential within us, let us try to focus on the NOW. The uncertainty is bound to follow you. No one can predict the future. But the time you have now is passing by and who you are today is not who you’ll be tomorrow.
As we strive through this weird and complicated phase, let us also take a moment out for the present. We strived hard to get here and we’ll do it again.
After all, the loudest storms give rise to the brightest of skies. And, in the end, everything meant for you will be yours to find.