A while ago, I stumbled across a TikTok with a creator talking about “living a toothless life.” Upon first watch I thought, “oh that must suck, not having teeth,” but as I watched the video, it became apparent that her message was more: if you are waiting for the perfect opportunity, there is a chance you will find yourself waiting forever.
I keep coming back to this video. The ultimate lesson I am learning is to live a life that means something — living a life that leaves teeth marks.
Welcome to Chill Pill, a column that comes out biweekly on Fridays about slowing down in a world that rarely lets us as college students. Here, we will talk about balance, burnout and the small things that can make college life feel a little less overwhelming.
Your primary responsibility is yourself. You owe yourself a life well-lived, and it sucks, but no one else is going to hand that to you. It’s up to you to prioritise your unapologetic self-expression for your own pleasure rather than external validation. If you’ve grown up with people-pleasing tendencies, maybe you’ve faced consequences from taking up space.
Self-expression is brave — just as brave as doing things that people don’t understand.
But external rejection doesn’t hurt nearly as much as the rejection we will have for ourselves if we sacrifice authenticity for the sake of being easier to digest or understand.
Taking action towards your dreams and passions is an act of self-love. Things will work out in your favor all the time when you open up the space and allow them to. Pre-rejecting yourself is not good as you are limiting yourself to the chance of success. Send the message, ask the question, start the article.
To me, living a full life means never letting my dreams and ideas lose momentum because I was too afraid to act. I think that is one of the most important and fun joys that we will have in college. The joy of learning how to take up space and finding out who we are and where we are meant to be.
I look (and sometimes stare) at people who have an inimitable energy of authenticity, and that twinkle in their eye almost feels contagious because they glow with the joy of having a deep love for who they are.
There’s so much truth in people’s energy, and such a huge difference in how you feel around people who have admitted defeat to an existence they dislike and those who have learned to love themselves genuinely, making their joy a priority.
There is no fulfilment without honesty. If you’ve never learned to really listen to yourself and figure out what it is you actually want out of life, this is the time to start. Journal more, spend more time alone and experiment with your self-expression.
Because there is no point building a life written by someone else, and you owe yourself a full life.