Plain words for a rough patch.
Seventeen paths, one for each kind of year. None of them will tell you to try harder, and every one was written by people who know the shape of it from the inside.
Start where you are. Someone kept the light on.
Each of these starts where you actually are and ends somewhere better. Pick the one that sounds like your year.
Back on your feet
For the first step, this week, rather than a plan for the whole year.
Leaving the apartment
You went in for a sound reason, and the stay simply went on. The door was always lighter than it looked from the chair.
Read this path →No. 02Starting over at 34
Late is a rumour started by people who had not finished either. A start at twenty-nine, or forty-four, and how to play it long.
Read this path →No. 03Making it right
That part is settled, and the record against you has one reader left. Making it right, in four sentences and on a standing order.
Read this path →No. 04In shape, without announcing it
The loud starts were never the problem; the announcing was. Getting in shape the quiet way, which is the way that holds.
Read this path →Coming into your own
For anyone who has been looked at, or looked past, and would rather be known.
Never the pretty one
Somebody decided early, and they were not qualified. Being noticed on purpose, and being known, which is the better of the two.
Read this path →No. 06You do not expire
The deadline was set by people who will not be at the bedside. Worth that was given, not earned, and does not depreciate.
Read this path →No. 07You were never going to be him
You did the practice, and none of it was wasted. The part after the mirror, and the one measurement nobody at the gym takes.
Read this path →No. 08No big title, building anyway
The ladder was built for someone else, so you built your own at hours nobody sees. The ones passed over early carry the most later.
Read this path →No. 09A story went round about you
A story went round, and the people repeating it were never the record. Composure, the few real friends, and your name, in that order.
Read this path →No. 10The rules arrived late
The rules arrived late; the wiring was never a mistake. Loud rooms, the same breakfast, and friends who do not need translating.
Read this path →Your people
For wanting someone to stay, and friends who are still there on a Wednesday.
Late to love
Everyone assumes you had a first. Unpractised is a season, not a sentence, and practice is available.
Read this path →No. 12The hunger, pointed right
The hunger was the best thing about you, pointed the wrong way. A routine, a few rules, one person who knows.
Read this path →No. 13After the drop
The feeling at the build was real, and it was a preview. After the drop, and keeping what the floor gave you.
Read this path →Out there
For when the news, someone else’s numbers or the fandom got bigger than your week.
When the news is too loud
You can care about all of it. You were never built to carry all of it. Attention, sleep, and the one or two things that are yours to move.
Read this path →No. 15Nine customers is a company
The scoreboard was curated; the nine customers in front of you were not. A slower ledger, and the part that holds when the weather turns.
Read this path →No. 16Six people who would show up
It was never the crimes. It was the table, and the table can be built. A few people who would actually show up.
Read this path →No. 17Fandom was never the flaw
Loving something that much was never the flaw. Keep the fandom, and bring some of the love home.
Read this path →