Skip to main content

Why Don't You Know?

This isn’t one of the good days. It’s not ideal, of course. Feeling awful and pretending otherwise is exhausting. I took a break today—or at least, that’s what I told myself. I informed them I wouldn’t be coming in for my assigned work.

But the truth is, I didn’t take a break. I lied. I didn’t go, but my mind stayed stuck on all the things that make me miserable. As a result, I feel even worse. But maybe I need to let myself fully feel what I’m feeling, no matter how much it annoys me. It won’t fade entirely, after all.

As vaguely as I can put it, it's a recurring pain. It will never stop. I can find ways to manage it, but it will always be there. Which is fine. I've learned to live with it—until I'm forced to live with it in classes, and everywhere I am, that is.

Turns out, it's in me, not the places I go and I can't stop meeting myself. 

Sometimes, this freedom I have feels more like a curse. I have time to find myself, but I don’t know what to do with it. It means facing the mirror and seeing more than just a pig with lipstick smeared on—because pigs aren’t ugly. It’s not about the face; it’s about everything else. Anything but the face.

Something that isn’t broken doesn’t need fixing. But being an adult—or whatever this is—means having to try and fix things you didn’t break in the first place. That’s the situation I find myself in now.

It’s weird, this thing called adulting. But I’m still a teen—nineteen. Time moves on without a care for me, and sometimes I love that. I’ve made peace with it now. But in ten minutes, right after I publish this, I’ll likely be terrified of time, of tomorrow.

There’s always so much to do when you have nothing in front of you. You’re in control now—the whole responsibility aspect of it—and that control feels heavy.

Uncertainty, I’ve been told, is fine. But it’s scarier now, feeling like it’s the one thing you can’t afford to be. You’re expected to live with purpose, in crazy specificity, and never admit you’re unsure about what to do. Your life was supposed to be planned out from A to Z, right?

No. It wasn’t. Things happen. You start realizing you have a say, and somehow, that makes everything even heavier.

The weight stays on my shoulders. I think I’ll devour it all. What else can I do with so much?

Maybe cardboard boxes are the solution. If I tape them up well enough, maybe they can stop time from passing. Maybe they can silence the questions too.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Varuthaayi.

"വരാം," ഞാൻ പറയുമ്പോൾ, "പോകാം" എന്ന് പറയാനുള്ള ആ പേടി. My legs prickle like the seeds of a strawberry, and I feel like tearing myself apart today. I keep picking at the wound that heals every two days, only for it to break open again—blood and flesh. I feel trapped in my own skin, my body will never be what I want it to be. There are things I’m supposed to become, but time is slipping away. I applied for many things. I have sent my name into the void—eight, ten, how many more? They have to call me today. If not, I won’t be who I need to be. Tomorrow, I’ll be hopeless again. I can’t hold on to who I am, so how will time hold on to me? I eat the yellow as if it might bring some joy. One piece is thin and crispy, the bite sounds, and I feel it. The next is thick and bland—someone like me must have cut it. One is unexpectedly sweet, even though it isn’t brown like I expected. How it lies to me. I look in the mirror, I look away. Another is too salty. I eat 250 grams of ...

Where's My Present?

"True consistency isn’t about frequency—it’s about identity. It is about becoming the kind of person who does what needs to be done, no matter what." For a long time, I thought I knew what I wanted. I chased internships, opportunities, and the validation that came with them. These things were within reach, yet the more I pursued them, the more they felt disconnected from who I was.  It wasn’t that they were bad opportunities—they were, by most standards, great ones. And I wouldn't pass them up if I did get them. But they weren’t my purpose, I realize. They didn’t align with the person I wanted to become.  I had let them define so much of what I did, and in that pursuit, I lost sight of the deeper question: What do I actually want? Ironically, chasing them helped me realize that they were never my end goal to begin with.   Yet, the pressure I put on myself was unbearable. The competitiveness I internalized made failure feel worse than death itself. Fear reduced me to ...

A Start. Maybe.

January 4th. That’s when I started writing my diary—not the 1st, not when I was supposed to. Already late. Already behind. And that feeling hasn’t left me since.   I keep skipping things I shouldn’t. I sign up for things and never follow through. I tell myself I’ll get it together, but I don’t. Money slips away. Time slips away. I try routines, I set goals, I make plans—nothing sticks.   Every conversation feels like I’m talking to myself. Every piece of work I create is full of I, me, myself. I can’t escape it, and honestly, I’m tired of it.   But here’s the thing: I need to be stronger than I am. I need to get my driver’s license. I need to stop running in circles before I turn 20 and wonder where all this time went.   The diary feels like a sham, but at least I’m still writing, I guess. I had not even written it for a long time. Maybe that’s something.   I want to know that the sun is there even if its not facing me. I want to feel th...