My shoulders are drooping underneath the heavy weight of expectation.

I'm being dragged by the leash of society.

I am examined based on should have's and could have's.

My joy is shrinking quickly under the pouring light of gnawing comparison.

Success is a yardstick that looms high above my shadow: dauntingly displaying all I lack.

The demand to “figure out who you are” bears down as if it’s essential as oxygen itself;

all while my mind spins as it is polluted with images of what is “right”.
Our society is fortified by faulty standards that are inflated with poisonous pixels and auto tuned melodies, and worst of all: I buy in.

The loose ends of my life accumulate in a tangled mass of misdirection and dimming zeal.

Yet instead of pausing to brush off the isolating spider webs of unfinished deeds and social shortcomings,

I stay quiet and progress.
Instead of taking a moment to care for myself,
I grit my teeth and march onward:

Because moving forward is the goal, is it not?
I feed the fantasy machine and press on,
encouraging others to follow their dreams
while I’m tangled up in my own.

Functioning under a mobile of unique circumstances that flicker in twirl in life's calm breeze, I pump the stress into life.
Racing to beat the same twenty-four hours everyone believes they are personally allotted, I make life into a weary hustle.
I know full well that I control very little, that perfection is a shifting shadow that no one can entirely achieve.
Yet I continue to play at this burdensome game: a game of delusional control.
I invest in a life spent chasing my tail and toying with a mirage:
desperately grasping at a title that can never be filled.

This marathon for “bigger, better, faster stronger” is an artificial pastime.

It is a breathless climb up the totem poll for the players who chose to play.

But what happens if I forfeit the competition?
What would begin to change if I stilled my constant clamoring,
and pursued joy rather than human affirmation?

What would happen if I traded stress for peace?

What becomes of the charade when I nix the constant moving forward and add in a thick, rich dose of contentment?

I choose another path-
I’ve decided not to play the comparison game.
The continuous maintenance that the facade of social perfection requires steals all of my energy and I’m finished feeling drained.
I choose to another path-
I choose to channel myself into being genuine: pursuing peace and basking in contentment.

I will move forward with confidence, not exhaustion, letting the chains of society fall to the ground.