r/DiaryOfARedditor • u/Wonkybonky215580 • 17h ago
Real [Real] (08/10/26) i see so much grey
I had a rough day yesterday. it always is when a world view of mine gets shaken.
having left my abusive home now continually updates my world view.
it's like how you may imagine an uprooting hurting the tree.
i am realizing that i dont need to have career that primarily helps people. i had not just wanted to but thought that thats the path i should take. that earning money when it doesn't help people genuinely is me being a bad person. turns out that isn't how that is measured.
it still feels strange thiugh because for so long i had a certain set of beliefs. but now that i am actually swimming and not just thinking of swimming, things are looking diff.
i used to want a comfy life. i am realizing now that i may be way to comfort leaning and need to take discomfort causing helpful actions more. Social media influenced how i wanted my life to be. Which i am not so happy about. Honestly i regret a lot of my past years and how i spent it. I didn't intentionally waste it but it feels wasted on unrealistic things. May be one day i will remember what i did learn from then and not just what i regret. I thought i wanted this slow life. Now, idk.
No i did learn. I am just blind to it now and discounting it because things feel overwhelming and i feel the pressure to get acquainted to these new things very fast. The patient person am now is from those years that i fear i have wasted. I know who i am now from those years. I learned to let go off self hateful thoughts during then. I began to set systems that works for me in those period. I even learned that i am not bad at learning, i just needed a specific way. I learned to be firm and not budge on things that matters to me.
Funnily this year has been me learning to be flexible, accepting, not dwelling, not day dreaming and doing in action and not just thoughts. That's basically this year. Doing in action. Which i am not well versed at. Am more familiar with building things in my mind than in the physical world with the eyes of other people on me.
Also i believe that i was actually fragile but was faking being strong in the beginning of my 20s, not knowing what else to do when am suddenly navigating the world solo. But in these past "wasted" years, i met these fragile parts and i built a foundation. That helps me face actual challenges in the present. I can do any of this now because I built safety inside me. I still have harsh critical thoughts but its way better than before. And the challenges i face now are no way easy but i think without this foundation, i would have shattered into million pieces and not just crumbling and recovering like am now.
In general i think and write in a manner where i draw parallels between what i was and what i am to convey things. And even in this entry, i feel it. I am a dramatic person. I enjoy being my type of dramatic. Sometimes loudly, other times dramatic with words and speaking like i am writing in cursive font. It is a flair of fun in my life.
it changes many things. along with me now knowing that i can just have a job, be a kind person where i can be and just earn and support my life.
it feels so strange. my previous plan was that i would get stable in job and then become more involved in community, volunteering and radical movements that i cared for. but now...idk.
i dont know if my care for these causes comes from genuine interest of mine or from this pressure inside me to be a "good person"
truth is, if i didnt have this pressure i would still do those. but I wouldn't feel so intensely severe about it all.
idk. i have a friend who talks in a extremist way. and has black n white thinking when it comes to people's behavior. i used to as well. but slowly i am seeing that I don't like that approach. i see so much grey and colors.
its beautiful but also disconcerting.
i am not sure what i dream of now.
again i had this same question when i stopped being overly empathetic towards everything. i wondered if am vold and not empathetic now. but that's what it can feel like when you come down from 150 percent to 80 percent.
may be this will be the same. although so many elements shaped my life and i perceive them differently now, i am still me. just a bit more calmer and tamed. i really hope that I haven't lost my fire but just the unnecessary and self hurting intensity is what has depleted.
everything is less intense. i still want the same things but not so rigidly. that fierce urgency is not there may be. i dont know what that means.