“Now what you in a rush for?
What, you tryna meet your maker, darling?
Or are you runnin’ out of time, huh?
But time ain’t even real, you really need to chill
It’s all an illusion
You gettin’ mixed up in the fusion” – Summer Walker “Insane”
Just the other day I was driving through my childhood neighborhood when a dreary cloud loomed over me. My thoughts began to panic:
“What am I going to do after graduation?”
“Is this what being in my twenties feels like? Walking through a pitch-black forest?!”
“Gosh, maybe this Starbucks run was a mistake.”
The migraines have been knocking on my door asking what my next step is in adulthood. Once, my only worry was making sure I didn’t miss the new Hannah Montana episode. Now, I wonder if I am making the right decisions in college for my future. It seems as if the only message plastered everywhere is this obsession with success as Instagram shows Forbes’s new 30 Under 30 or Olivia Rodrigo being nominated for seven Grammys.
How do we stop feeling like we’re running out of time?
There has always been this treadmill people have been telling us to run on: graduate high school, graduate college, get a job, get married, have kids, and retire. Rather than hearing this constant noise and the expectations of others, we have to intently listen to what we want in a quiet headspace. Instead of thinking that we are our thoughts, step back and see them as clouds passing by. If it was only you in the world, what thoughts would you have?
In the immortal words of Summer Walker, “But time ain’t even real, you really need to chill.”