We’re nearing the end of this university year and, like we do, we start thinking about the ‘beyond’. What we’re going to do beyond our university years of deadlines, caffeine and expensive textbooks. Where it is we’re going to be and how on earth we’re going to get there, what it is we’ll be doing and is it the same as what we want to be doing right now? In short, we’re wondering at what age will we greet that shiny moment of ‘making it’.
Here’s your bubble bursting moment by yours truly – there will never be a moment you will have stopped and made it. Ever.
Life is a continuous series of moments, both good and bad, that never flounder nor never falter. Life keeps moving the same way the world keeps turning and you keep reaching for that cup of coffee. The pause moments you have? Those are moments you have chosen to take. So there will never be a moment we will reach the pinnacle of our careers and slam our hands on the big red STOP button. We can tap our fingers against a pause button anytime we want, firmly start our lives with a push of the play button, but there never be a STOP. There will never be a time where it all comes together, tied up neatly in a bow the way rom-coms do so well. We’re ever changing, ever moving and never ending on a pursuit for ‘more’. Because we want to keep going, to keep creating and changing and progressing. We don’t ever want to stop doing what we’re doing right now. And even if you’re reading this and you don’t know what it is ~exactly~ you want to do and the world feels a bit overwhelming? You’re moving towards it. Even if you don’t think you are. Because each day is progress and a chance to learn, no matter how God awful and cringey that might sound to you. Don’t be so hard, on yourself and on everything else.
Look back on your time this past year and name 5 things you’ve accomplished. Dig deep. Don’t sell yourself short, because that’s so easy to do and if you’re so keen to ‘make it’ you know easy it’s the key to success. My five things? I’ve gotten vulnerable. I took chances, on all manner of things. I met fellow writers and artists, cheered on fellow girl bosses and supported those I adore. I got bangs and look really cute with them, too. I decided the person I am is worth it all, even if before I was wondering if this ‘enough’ I was feeling in my bones was a gimmick, even when someone tried to shake this feeling of content in me. I got me, because I know this Lou. The way you, deep down, know you.
And maybe right now you think what you want to do seems out of reach. Maybe you think it will never happen to you, because you’re not the type of person these things do happen too. Maybe the world is too big and too bleak, because our very lives are being stretched out the way they haven’t for decades. But that doesn’t mean good things can’t happen. That doesn’t mean chances should be dismissed or opportunities missed. Nor does it mean you should skip out on that free concert or go on that date. You might have some momentum going, a beginning so new it seems too good to be true and you’re just waiting on the curtain to fall at your feet. You’re waiting for the moment someone shrieks ‘THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT’ but you do. You do, you do, you do.
So keep talking. Keep doing the things you have an urge to do and never do it for the hunger of the ‘made it’ moment. Never do it for the recognition or the money. Do it because it’s the thing you have to, must do. That pinnacle of making it? It’s never coming to you. The space will be made for you at your chosen table, but the Nirvana of making it and getting to stop, is never going to happen. The best part?
You’re going to realise you don’t want that moment, either.
You’re going to want to keep going, and making it count.
