What Are We Going To Do With All This Future?

“What's good is when everybody thinks you're headed somewhere fast,

when you're all potential. Potential is pure f*ckin' joy.”

- Daisy Jones and The Six

Excuse mon français.... but!

I come back to this quote often. I remember reading it for the first time and knowing it’d stick. At every crossroads in my life, right before a major shift or change, it seems I always try to dig my heels in & stall.

I want to sit in all the potential just a while longer — to say I got the job without actually doing it yet, to say I’m moving to a new city without packing the boxes yet. I want all the excitement, none of the sacrifice — not yet.

It’s anticipation – it’s oxymoronic. It’s not being able to tell if that feeling in your stomach is butterflies or a pit.

You don’t know what it’ll be like. Maybe you’ll hate the subway — or maybe it’ll become your quiet time, a moment to gather your thoughts.

Maybe that sounds laughable to a real New Yorker — and maybe they’re right. But the truth is, I don’t know yet. I haven’t lived it for myself.

Not knowing is blissful – sometimes excruciating – yes. But, no bets are off at this stage. It’s this quick glimmer of the realization that you can do anything you want which is 1) freeing and 2) paralyzing.

I think Gucci said it best:

I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do with all this future.

But what I do know is that Jeff Buckley’s sentiment is eerily similar to mine –

"I just want to have a completely adventurous, passionate, weird life."

Jeff Buckley, on moving to New York.

So I guess what I’m trying to say through all of these hyper-niche examples and metaphors that may or may not land is that it’s totally okay to not know what you’re going to do with all of your potential, but you must do something with it.

You must do poetic justice to your soul and experience all that you can! Explore what this world has to offer, take a risk, make the sacrifice, spend too much on an apartment and become a regular at the unassuming sub shop on your street. Or whatever you want to do.

When you’re at this stage whether it’s post-grad, a career change, a new city, or empty-nesting, don’t let the vastness of the next chapter overwhelm you to a point where you stay in what's comfortable. Book pages must turn because the story gets better when you move on. It doesn’t mean the characters aren’t great and you aren’t loving the story, but the next best thing is always around the corner for those who dare to look.

So, for now, I’m going to go see what I’m going to do with all of this future, I’m going in the pursuit of having a completely adventurous, passionate, weird life. I’m seeking the potential, looking for more, and constantly trying to get to know myself better. I’ll let you know what I find — whether it’s good, bad, or ugly — at least then I’ll know.

Or, as I like to say, I’m going in search of the je ne sais quoi – in none other than the city so nice they named it twice — New York, New York!

See you out there! Xx, Maddie