Dear Average
An Essay and Gentle Reminder...
Welcome to a gentle reminder.
You’re lucky enough to have eyes allowing you to read this right now. A heart is safely pounding inside your caged chest and a warm bed awaits you that you’re counting down the hours for. You live under a roof, breathing, bathing and building up your bones. Yes, you might spend five days a week waiting tirelessly for the final two, but you’d be surprised at just how many people would bite your hand off for the security of that job.
As impossible as it might feel, you should treasure this time. Your busy years between education and retirement are the majority. And nothing is for certain. Except one thing. Retirement may never come, so feel and experience your Monday to Friday. Living in these days as much as you can, take you breaks and make your brews, appreciate that this time might be all you get.
Unhappiness can be changed, so change it. Invest your time in what you love with those you love around you. Reminding yourself how inconspicuous you are and the brilliance of this. You can embarrass yourself, laugh, dance and cry all without worry. Apart from the light-hearted jokes from friends and family of course. But overall, you’re free. ‘To do what you want to do’. Life isn’t about the rights and wrongs, it’s about your grand total. As long as your total equals a positive, then you were the best version of you you could be.
Allow yourself enjoyment, whether it’s simply sitting and reflecting, singing out loud around the house or eating that cheeky chippy tea. Do it. I always ask myself, what’s the worst that could happen, and instantly I calm down from the internal panic of my actions on the world around me. We need all to learn to shake off that voice of worry, that dooms you into a shameful whirlwind, whether for that chip in your tooth, being in the wrong lane at a roundabout or that ever-receeding hairline.
Speaking of hairlines, we age and we change, things fly south it’s normal. Accept it. At a time where everything can be altered and fixed we need to remember how we’re made to look different and unique. Ageing is a sign of a happy long life we’re living. There’s a time where we all become alike and that’s in the end, don’t rush it. At that time, every worry built up in these fragile years will mean nothing, all that will be left is the faces you impacted. You’ll be equal to all those who came before and all those following your leave. Try to stay different whilst you can.
Feel free and safe in the little casing that carries you, and whenever that dark voice pops up, remind yourself that your imperfections make you just as they do everyone else. I don’t know about you, but I’d hate to wake up one morning and not recognise my loved ones, eventually noticing that all these perfect looking people are my loved ones that have changed their silly features that I’d come to love. It’s wild to think that your friends and family and maybe even some admirers, would be gutted at you changing something you’ve named as an insecurity. It being an essential factor in the building of a perfect you.
To conclude, ageing and living in general, no matter how scary it might be, is something not everyone has the opportunity to experience. So cherish it whilst it’s yours. It won’t be forever.