are you living your life like a second person narrative?

hey you

you're really free

you're more free than you think you are.

with the exception of stealing a dragon or raiding a candy store (in this example, those two probably aren't mutually exclusive), you can do just about whatever you want.

are you stuck?

have you arrived at the universe and found a one way sign? pointing back the other way? you're pressed up against a fence. you're breathing too hard in zero gravity and it's really dark.

you've come to the only conclusion and it's disappointing to you.  this is a black and white script. you thought you were the author but you're the stage directions. you don't get to decide where you're going.  

are you living your life like a second person narrative? 

the thing is: you weren't born with an instruction manual.  but you picked one up along the way, anyway, and now you're stuck and now it's your religion. 

society is writing your book in second person, future tense, and you think you're the protagonist. 

WAKE UP

what if there isn't an ending?

what? 

artwork by Tim Andrew

i mean, what if you aren't working towards some predetermined goal. what if this isn't a hero's journey? what if there's no pressure on you to perform, no goal for you to reach at the end of the day what if you aren't a character in this book at all?

i'm not saying you aren't a hero.
you are magic. 
you are everything powerful and i believe in you. 

i'm saying:
stop writing poetry that rhymes
metaphorically
stop answering rhetorical questions 
there is no peak to your mountain
and if there was, you'd never know when you reached it

you aren't trapped between two covers. this isn't a fairytale.
and before that sounds like something tragic, like i'm destroying your childhood, stop for a moment and think:

you are more than fiction. 
you have more than one possible ending.
you don't have to follow a script.
it's okay if you forget all of your lines.

if you want to, you can write the fairytale. 

and what am i saying, actually?

i'm telling you to believe in yourself.  i'm telling you to trust that if you take a step out onto a metaphorical bridge built of dreams and passion and hard work and possibly unicorn poop, that bridge is going to hold your weight. 

i'm saying, go for that dream job. go to college and study whatever the heck you want to learn. go backpacking this weekend.  open infinite doors.  go buy a cute lil flower plant, and keep it alive the best you can.  discover there weren't infinite doors– 

just infinite doorways.

do things that matter to you.  because if what you're doing doesn't matter to you, there's no one else for it to matter to.  everyone can do stuff fulfill themselves. it's not up to you to reach someone else's happy quota. 

that's not how happy quotas even work, silly. in the end, you care the most about your own path, and you're the only person who can get yourself to where you want to be.  

it's not too late. it's not ever too late. just look in the closest imaginary mirror and say to yourself, hi self, i believe in you. 

bam. from now on, you're doing this. whatever you wanted to do (minus the dragons and the candy story), you're doing it.

you're so much more free than you thought you were. 

i believe in you too

 – cm ♥