Stop Blinking

There is a particular emotional crispness to fall air: it’s refreshing, but also hopeful and comforting.

As a born Miamian, where it’s humid, boil-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk hot (and sometimes a hellish combination of the two), the first breath of fall has always meant so much to me. The coolness brushes my skin with nostalgia and hints of anticipation for the holiday magic to come.

It’s brilliant. Albert “Ray” Massey Westside Park

And though I love this change of season and mental state, I can’t help but ask myself, “Where did the time go?” like any other human over the age of eighteen that realizes that he or she is (insert gasp here) basically “grown up.” We’re beginning to sound like some of our elders: broken records constantly fumbling over time, wondering how they got to the holidays once again. 

What’s up with that, AM I RIGHT (read in ‘amateur stand up comedian’ tone)?  

Nonetheless, we can’t fight time because it only overpowers us. Even so, you know what they say (whoever ‘they’ are), “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” My jab at this predicament is as follows: team up with time and ride life through the ticking clock, second by second, in a way that we absorb the experience rather than be caught by it, because…

We struggle to live attentively. We glide through each day propelled by instinct, habit and the need to survive, but do we notice the wispy clouds in the sky? Or the smell of freshly-cut grass? Our daily personal evolution? Do we breathe deeply each moment of each day, so that each morning can feel like that first breath of fall? 

If you’re picking up on a tone change here, it’s because I’ve changed…just as the seasons change, as we go through our own internal seasons as well. This is going to sound movie-esque, but I recently shed most of my “little girl in a big world” ideology when I celebrated my 21st birthday at Disney World, Magic Kingdom to be exact (no, I didn’t ‘drink around the world’). I was expectedly giddy, jumping up and down while walking into the park. But when I entered, and I saw the droves of waddling mini-princesses and strollers filled with precious lil’ infants, I realized that I no longer felt the same excitement. I felt grown. 

And with that growth, comes a Peter Parker level of responsibility to live life through our own power, not through the protection of our parents or the often comfortable shield that is childhood.

When it’s time, it’s time. 

Really, this is a new kind of excitement. It’s not fantasy, but the reality you create for yourself. It’s the abundance of choices that life offers you throughout the course of time. It’s the opportunity to mold your journey around passion and reachable dreams. Sure, it’s daunting…unpredictable…and bumpy, but it’s all yours. 

So stop blinking and open your eyes to the truth of your life and what you can make it, each minute of every day. Proceeding to drop my mic now.