sometimes a message comes to you through art just when you need it. there's a piece by @hillergoodspeed that's been cemented in my brain since i first saw it a few years ago. it's a simple green wash with a figure laying in what i assume represents a grassy field.

i can change, it says.

i can be something else
i can be different
i can be new.

sometimes the most simple and obvious truths resonate the most deeply. i was at a very transitory point in my life when this work slid across my feed, and its text became a mantra i would whisper during difficult battles with myself.

the work to figure out what kind of person you want to be is a lifelong project, and it takes a good amount of initiative and agency. somehow i had never realized this before: that you can decide who you want to be. that your personality is not hard-coded.

i'm hard on myself, but i am trying. trying to give myself the chance to actively decide what kind of person to be. to let myself be reborn any time i need it. to give myself the grace to know i don't have to be fixed in my ways.

the world is as flexible as we are, and we can change whenever we want.

yes, i can be different. i can be new.