H&M sweater
Oak + Fort skirt (c/o) (similar)
Jonak babes (similar)
Celine handbag
Celine sunglasses
Stella & Dot ring
Stella & Dot earrings
Location: Fontana di Trevi – Rome, Italy
That quote, attributed to Walt Disney, appears at the end of the movie Meet the Robinsons. The concept that we need to keep moving is central to the plot, which focuses on a little boy struggling to find his place in a world that isn’t quite ready for his particular brand of genius. It’s a sweet story, if not one that I saw much of myself in. If anything, it’s the adult version of the little boy, who we meet right at the end of the story, in whom I recognise a bit of myself; he’s the one who encourages everyone to keep moving forward, which is something I’ve always strived to do. If it’s not working, don’t dwell on it. If you fail, it’s just an opportunity to learn. Keep going. Try again. Don’t look back.
I always strived to do it, but moving forward became significantly more challenging when the world stopped in 2020. When I look back on the past two years, I see myself waiting for my life to return to normal. Struggling to look forward at a future that doesn’t seem to exist. And giving up, choosing instead to simply wait for my life to go back to the way it used to be. I don’t know when it happened, exactly, can’t pinpoint the moment, but I stopped moving forward. I started to feel like our trip to Athens in 2019 was just yesterday, when in reality I’m almost three years older than I was the day we departed, and most assuredly not the same person I was back then.
I’m not berating myself because I couldn’t keep moving forward. Far from it. But I need to acknowledge that it happened, give myself the benefit of understanding. The circumstances were impossible. We all did the best we could. And if we’re moving on now, it’s as very different individuals, possibly with parts of the people that we once treasured or took pride in now missing or changed. So, to the woman I am now…
If you aren’t the unstoppable force you once were, that’s okay. If your priorities are different now, it’s understandable, and most likely that you’re not alone in that. And if feel more comfortable pretending that 2019 was yesterday for now, because you don’t really know what comes next, you can allow yourself that indulgence. But there is no going back. Your thirty-seventh birthday is just a few short months away now. There are decisions you’ll need to make about what you want the rest of your life to look like, and the ones you make won’t always be right. But you’ll be better off for trying than you will be if you just keep waiting for someone to press the play button on your old life after a two and a half year pause.
It will be hard, and messy, and scary a lot of the time. But you need to try, now more than ever, to just keep moving forward.
