To pretend

The world told me to reach for the skies
And I wanted to once
I am nearing my forties now
And I live much closer to the ground these days

Dear younger self

I know you want to change everything
And you want it done tomorrow
But you can not use a sledge hammer
To shape little pieces of diamond

For that is what we all are
We are all fragile and must be shaped with care
If you would change something, my friend
You must proceed carefully and slowly

I realize this is hard for you
For carefully and slowly are not the nature of youth
But look at mountains
Look at the sea
Look at how nature changes

Things which change slowly last

So you have a choice
You can charge ahead
Make a drastic change
And then likely see it fall apart after a short while

They might even praise you for it
But you will not have truly changed anything

Or you can change things slowly and gently
They will not praise you for this
And it will not give you pictures to post on Instagram

But at the end of the process the world will be a little better

To really change something
Or to just pretend for the sake of the spotlight

You have a choice