sydney jackson

I often forget how time waits for no one and that the best way to gain time back is to relish in the moments you’re in. Social media really tricks us into thinking that life is moving at full speed when in reality, most things take time. Nature has an ebb and flow to it that is always moving, but not at the speed of light. There is no pressure from the sun or the moon or the stars for things to “grow faster”. The sun does not wait in anxiety while the moon shines. Nor does the moon rush the sun to set.

Life is what you make of it and I don’t want to make it any harder than it needs to be. Most things are not that urgent. I am too young to be living too fast. My anxieties around achieving certain levels of success by a certain age were not born in me, they were injected. The quick as things come, they quick as they go. I am not a perpetual self-improvement project, a machine, or something that needs to be “fixed”. I am a living being that requires rest, fuel, and connection to function. As the incomparable Fiona Apple once said,

And I no longer strive to cater to its demands. So I will take all of the naps. I will savor each meal. Stare at the ceilings and walls and let my mind wander. Allow myself to be bored. Because I’m realizing how much of a privilege it is to live slowly. A slow life is not a punishment for choosing peace. A boring life is not a punishment for choosing stability. I’m tired. And to continue to operate in the ways that society expects us, would mean to abandon myself and those who care about me.

The most revolutionary act that you can do is choose yourself. Don’t pour yourself into systems that were never created with your humanity in mind.