Why I decided to start writing again

It’s easy to forget who you were, are, or want to be. It’s easy to let the vision slip – to get sidetracked, railroaded, or literally ran over by life. Sometimes you just have to take a step back, and look at the bigger picture.

For me, it was starting Uni that caused my vision to blur. Up until last year I had never really understood how it felt to be alone – to feel lonely even when you’re surrounded by your friends. But it happened.

By the beginning of my second term, I had stopped going to lecture, quit my part-time job (which was dumb because I am a true believer in retail therapy), and developed a huge procrastination problem when it came to important work being done – like literally essays that counted towards my entire grade. I basically stopped caring about the things that were important to me.

Then I watched this TED Talk by Sarah Knight on ‘The Magic Of Not Giving A F***’, and I’m not going to lie; at first, it was semi-entertaining and kind of sounded like a cool idea. However, when you’ve actually lived it, it’ll have you rethinking your life choices like:

Trust me when I say, “It is cool to care guys.”

It’s so important to put effort into living life. Even when it comes to that one presentation that counts toward 30% of your grade – that you really don’t want to do. Expecting life to only present you with scenarios that please you will get you labelled ‘delusional’ real quick in addition to leaving you emotionally equivalent to being in the sunken place.

 

Post-first year drama, post- exam season, pre-summer seventeen, I’m starting to feel like myself again. With a load of excess weight off my shoulders and a return to ‘normalcy’, the vision became less blurred. And I know this is the biggest cliché ever, but I learned so much about myself this year. Now this is not to say, you should seek out depression-inducing situations in the hopes of self-enlightenment(because frankly, that’s extremely unhealthy bro). But it is a reminder that there is always something next, something new to conquer.

There are thousands of pages of research and plenty of studies that suggest a negative link between social media and depression -which, I mean could definitely be true. However, for me, Twitter and Instagram are like my daily dose of inspiration. It’s always cool to see people like you, from places like you shine! After all, growth only encourages more growth; am I right?

I decided to start writing again, because hobbies are important. Inspirational black girls showed me that you can turn a passion into a paycheck with enough hard work. I realised I didn’t want my life to be the depressing print you see hanging at your doctor’s office. I want my life to be one of those sick aerial drone shots, a Basquiat, a this.

And to be honest you should too.

There are so many young people out here doing their thing, it would be wild if you didn’t want to shine too.

Written by Rayo Yusuf

Twitter: @virtualrai_

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