The Chronicles of Writing

Tea, coffee and slowing down

I am at a stage where I'm fully embracing by the fact that I'm treating the book more like a diary, and posting what I wrote in September, and forgot to post it later. It's a way to vent, learn, and share, to work on my feelings through writing, which has been proven the most effective way to do so.

So let's all pretend that it's still September, and not the end of October (time flew by me on this one).

Well for those who are reading this (Hey peach!),

I moved.

How I'm going to university next year, became I'm leaving in two months, in ten days, in a week, tomorrow, and then to I moved, it's really a mystery. Time is a tricky thing, and I've never been particularly good with it. It feels like I'm always waiting for something to happen, or dreading something else.

For summer, for winter.

For 16, then for 17.

For middle school then for high school.

I've always been a person who can't handle waiting. Don't get me wrong, I have patience. It's just that I'm patient for people, not time. I needed everything to move faster, smoother, letting life grasp through my fingers, not really stopping to look.

But something happened to me, when I came to the Netherlands (where I'm currently torturing myself with a STEAM degree), and especially in the last few days, that has made me rethink my way of passing through time.

I've been focused on building habits. Making myself a life here. Throughout that process I figured out my favorite place to sit and have (cheap) coffee, and as I watch people pass by, all with their own lives, all at their own pace and feel the pieces of my life falling in place together.

The old lady with the mismatched clothes and the hair as white as the coldest snow of winter, carrying along her bag filled with bags not really in a rush to go anywhere, just walking around radiating happiness.

The crazy woman with two scarves in her head, on the table across me that is very much talking to herself.

A couple with their kids reading books on the library next door.

People here have the tendency of slowing down. A happiness that can only be explained as the result of stopping to look around, of waking up late, and strolling through the streets with your bike.

If life here means I have to slow down, then life here is quickly becoming my favorite.

Maybe this is just the sudden dose of freedom that I just got, that's going to faint. Maybe I'll quickly go back to rushing and planning, to hoping for the future, as if I'm not already living a future I hoped for. And yet, even if the change is temporary I still want to share this with you, mainly because I could then look back to now and remember the pure happiness that rushed through my veins in this very moment.

Slow down.

Live.

Smile.

You'll figure it out.

And with that I leave you, goodbye.