We’re all just waiting for the next thing to happen. It’s like we’re all sitting in some giant waiting room, checking our watches, tapping our feet, waiting for life to start. The next job, the next trip, the next relationship, the next milestone, there’s always something just ahead that we think will finally give us purpose, finally make us feel like we’ve “arrived.” But what if the next thing isn’t coming? What if we’re just meant to exist in this endless in-between, caught in the perpetual loop of “waiting for something”?
We convince ourselves that the best is always just around the corner. But when we get there, it’s never as great as we imagined, and we find ourselves back in the same space, looking ahead again. This cycle of waiting for “the next thing” becomes our default setting, and suddenly, we're living for a future that might never actually materialize in the way we picture it.
The most bizarre part? We often don’t even know why we’re waiting. We just do. We’re waiting for that promotion to make us feel accomplished, for that relationship to make us feel loved, for that vacation to make us feel relaxed. But in the meantime, we’re missing all the moments happening right now. The small moments, the ones we overlook because we're too busy looking ahead, might be the ones that actually make life meaningful.
But what if the next big thing never comes? What if there isn’t some dramatic event that changes everything? What if this moment, the in-between, is all there ever is? The idea is terrifying, right? That maybe there isn’t some magical shift waiting for us around the corner. We might spend our entire lives waiting for something, only to realize that the waiting itself was the thing we should’ve been living for all along.
Maybe we’re not supposed to be constantly rushing toward the next thing. Maybe we’re supposed to find meaning in the “in-between”, the quiet, seemingly insignificant moments that make up the bulk of our lives. The cup of coffee in the morning, the walk down the street, the conversation with a friend. The realization that we are living is enough, even if there’s no grand event on the horizon.
But of course, that’s easier said than done. Because waiting is the default. It’s the rhythm we’ve been conditioned to follow. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll keep waiting forever, not realizing that the next big thing isn’t a destination, it’s the process. It’s the constant motion of life itself.
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