Raleigh D.

Photography by Jackson Covert

If you are reading this, slow down—you are enough.

I know you feel the pull, the longing for more, more, more. You hear the whispers, the siren-like temptations, the Faustian promises from our culture, our campus, and even from our subconscious that if you just accomplish ____ then you will have it. If you just do more, make more, be more things to more people then you will have it—happiness, purpose, fulfillment, joy, excitement, a life worth living.

It’s the American belief that more always equals more, yet I know you have felt just the opposite. That more, more, more somehow results in less. The more you do, the more you accomplish, the more you extend yourself, the more things you mean to more people, the emptier you feel.

You sit at a banquet replete with the delicious dishes of all the previous desires and goals you’ve accomplished with family, friends, and fans all cheering and lavishing an almost nauseating number of compliments upon you. Yet, you cannot eat, you cannot enjoy, and it is not enough—it is never enough.

You make promises with yourself that the next thing will be it, that it will bring the sensation you’ve been chasing. With every mountain you climb, each higher and more difficult than the last, you reach the peak, take a breath, and wait.

You wait with a hope both great and terrible for the magic everyone promised to take hold and make you feel it. You wait, and wait, and wait for that extraordinary thing which does not come...and now you fall­­–each time faster and longer than the last.

In these moments of despair where you sit with yourself and hate how you can’t be happy, how the accolades and achievements are never enough, and how no matter how much others love you still you can’t love yourself, life looms large and seems insurmountable.

I know you feel this way because I too feel this way.

As you strive and suffer so do I, as you hope and hate so do I, and as you fight and fall so do I. The darkness with how it pierces then consumes you can feel so uniquely damning but know that you are not alone.

I know it feels as though you must shoulder this Herculean burden in solitude, that neither your family nor friends will understand. It is scary to look at the future and think that nothing will ever be enough, that no extraordinary achievement will provide that satisfaction you seek, the feeling that will release you from the darkness, the peace that will not be moved by those whispers and longings for more. I’m not here to tell you I have found the answer nor the secret accomplishment that has beaten back the darkness with its insatiable desire.

I am here to tell you I see you. I am here to tell you I know you. I am here to tell you I love you just the way you are. I am here to tell you that there are so many people who know and love you and respect you not for what you have accomplished or put on your resume but for the magic you bring into their life. I am here to tell you that you don’t have to keep falling forward faster and faster. I am here to tell you that life is enough if you would only let it be. I am here to tell you to slow down, my dear friend.

I am here to tell you…

Everything you have every desired waits only for you to lower your expectations

take a deep breath

put on your favorite song

take a walk and let the Sun samba across your skin

let the bracing breeze whisper through your hair

savor each meal as if it is your last

sit on an old bench and pretend time time is away and somewhere else

cherish a friend’s laughter like a symphony from heaven and smile like a blessing from God

gush as wind rustles a tree and shakes its shimmering leaves like a sea of peacock feathers

bear witness to all the miracles happening around you

find the magic in the ordinary and the extraordinary takes care of itself

relax and let life swell up in front of you 

I am here to tell you that you have time.

I am here to tell you I believe in you.

I am here to tell you each choice is a chance to become a person you love being.

I am here to tell you that you are enough.

I am here to tell you that you are enough.

I am here to tell you the most impressive and important thing you could ever accomplish 

is loving yourself.

Raleigh D., Southern Methodist University

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