Nothing Really Matters

Now before you say to yourself, “Oh great, so it’ll be that kind of post,” hear me out.

People have a strange talent for turning tiny inconveniences into full-time emotional projects. Half the things we obsess over barely matter by next week, let alone in the grand, dramatic autobiography we keep writing in our heads.

I am not saying every problem is imaginary, and I am definitely not pretending a blog post can explain the full state of the human mind. Life is messier than that. But I do think we give too much importance to things that would shrink the moment we stopped staring at them.

We live in a world where mediocrity is looked down upon and money runs the room. I have seen too many people treat others as if they are beneath them just because they cannot live as flamboyantly. I have seen too many people make life miserable for janitors and service workers just because they messed up the slightest thing. I have seen too many people arguing with strangers on online forums, people they will never even meet. I have seen too many people hate each other just because they were born someplace else. I have seen too many people miss out on life just because they care too much about other people’s opinions. I have seen too many people feel inadequate after comparing themselves with everyone around them.

Life is not about comparing the greenness of grass on every side around you. Life is about mowing your own lawn and making the grass as green as you would like. Life is also about finding joy in the little things. Some of the best things in the world are royalty-free: the sound of rain tapping on a window while you lie in bed with a book in one hand and a hot cup of coffee in the other, sleeping in on a Sunday with your phone turned off after an exceptionally difficult week, the way your dog loses all self-control after seeing you at the end of the day, or the sound of waves crashing while you walk barefoot on an empty beach.

I guess some things really do matter.

There will still be days when you think it cannot get any worse. Those days may turn into weeks, months, or even years. But when it is all said and done, you usually look back and realize those excruciating stretches changed you, shaped you, and forced a version of you into existence that comfort never could have managed.

Before you let your emotions take over in any situation, ask yourself: does it really matter? Ninety-nine percent of the time, it does not. Life is too short to fixate on trivial things. Think about it this way: when you have a problem, either it can be solved or it cannot. If it cannot, worrying achieves nothing. If it can, then worrying still achieves nothing. If overthinking fixed even the tiniest of problems, people would sit on pedestals all day with their chin resting on one fist. Find out that one thing which makes you feel good and obsess over that instead. After a point, nobody else’s opinion counts.
So I guess it was that kind of post after all. Oh well.

In the words of Doris Day,
Que Sera, Sera
Whatever will be, will be.