viva la vida

the weight of words

we, as humans, are foolish. we're what we're supposed to be; naive, flawed, occasionally ignorant, emotional and thriving on life on different levels. but sometimes our naivety gets the better of us and we live in the belief that the almighty power machine called our brain controls us, therefore it's ok to say stupid things because it just slipped out. that's natural for humans, right?

of course it is. it's natural to sometimes say something that's not nice about someone because we have thoughts and opinions running through our heads that beg to escape. but today, in this year, in this age, there are too many people saying degrading things instead of cheering others on and accepting them. 

so what could we do, you ask?

imagine everyone has a limited number of words that they can say in their life times. i know that's unrealistic, but just think about it. would you waste all those beautiful word to fat-shame people, comment on their skin colour, be homophobic to them when you could use them to describe the great food you just had, that hot guy that just said hello to you, the good times you and your family and friends had or a bomb ass new song you just heard? if you imagine your mouth to have a word limit, it really puts pressure of what you're going to say, how you're going to act etc and it's going to filter you.

i'm not encouraging anyone to filter themselves. you are an ocean of stories, thoughts, feelings, opinions and dreams. why should you condense all that water into a miserably small water bottle?

what i'm encouraging people to do is realise that words hold weight. a writer called Maya Angelou once said "at the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel" and i think it's so true. i find it so amazing that something as simple as words can evoke emotions that can stick to you like permanent glue, but it happens. people will remember how your words made them feel and it's going to be on a scale of smiling like a cheshire cat for the rest of the day to lying in bed at night and crying themselves to sleep.

and girl/boy, i'm no mary the virgin when it comes to words. i have talked about other people behind their backs, i have been unkind without thinking and the same has happened to me. it's a cycle in our life and it happens to everyone. but i'm trying to put the unkind words on a leash. i understand it's natural and i'm not always going to be a grinning unicorn showering people with rainbows of compliments but i want to think before i say more.

so the next time you're about to say something unkind to someone, just think about it, even if your friend keeps rambling about that person whose skirt is way too short and gives you a weird look when you don't join in. just think about whether you want someone to be crying themselves to sleep because of what you said, and whether you would want to be in their situation. this won't be easy, but try to reduce the amount of unkind things you say. it'll make you happier and you won't get into issues and dramas.

we're in this together. 

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a/n i think i just came off as cringy but this was literally a word vomit. this topic has been on my mind for a few days and i didn't know how to get it out. so we have this rant/thought/list book as a result of it. i don't know how often i'll update but it's generally going to be word vomit chapters like this, music, writing, wattpad, books, geography, languages etc. 

and hey, thanks for taking time out of your day to read this. time is a valuable thing and i'm so grateful that you have spent a few minutes reading this. thank you.

this book was inspired by JumpingToConclusions and her book "Fragment Thoughts". it's so funny and witty and enjoyable to read. 

stay smart, stay strong people

antoana x