This Year, I Dare You To Take Risks

Only a few weeks into 2018, I’d realized I wasn’t happy. I’d spent so long selling myself short, shrinking myself, trying to be soft-spoken, purely for the sake of everyone around me. I’ll give you the spoiler early; if you’re anything like me, you’ll wake up one day and decide you don’t want to feel like this anymore, or ever again for that matter.

Throw it all out the window.

I mean everything, the learned habits you’ve practiced and burned into your brain so carefully; the ones that help you fit in more, the routines that satisfy everyone but you. None of that matters anymore because your happiness needs to come first. I’m telling you from personal experience to burn as brightly as you were made to. Please, forget everything you’ve read on “self-help” articles telling you how to be an adult, forcing you to believe you’re not special; because you are.

In my twenty-four years of life on this earth, I’ve looked around and realized that yes, our lives are full of monotony and meaningless jobs we do to keep a roof over our heads. No, we weren’t made for some special plan. Yes, we all at some point end up doing something we hate because we have to. Yes, we all end up thinking what we’re doing is fine if we can tolerate it. Stop there.

Stop tolerating life.

Quit turning your head the other way, don’t avoid doing something you want to do because you’re afraid of what people might think. Everything you do involves risk, and that’s something you’ll have to accept if you want to grow. You might get your heart broken, you might fail, you might even have to start over.

But all of that is so much better than not moving forward at all. There is so much beauty in new beginnings, no matter how ugly they look on the surface.

So, keep going.

Avoid staying in one spot because you’ll realize it was all worth it.