2026-01-21: tired of pretending i'm okay and everything's okay

today i realized i was feeling the same way i was in 2020, when the world was falling apart, and people were dying, and i had to pretend i wanted to go to work and do my day to day tasks. i didn't want to go to work then. i don't want to go to work now, it's hard to show up and get things done at a regular enough pace that people aren't worrying about where my head is. because i'm worrying where my head is. the work is important. i do care. but something's fundamentally broken in my brain. the want slips in and out. i can't fixate on the work week like i can when things are going well. i guess that means things aren't going well. and they aren't. look around and look at the news, you know?

it's hard to get up in the morning and face day after day where bad people make bad things happen and there are no consequences, hard to find the will to participate in the society that enriches them and emboldens them. i want bad things to happen to bad people. i want them to fuck off forever, & to leave good people alone.

i want to hang out with old friends who are not here (geographically), who are not here (physically on this earth anymore); i have this deep longing to retreat to some approximation of the younger version of myself, who planned and tried and failed, but still had big dreams. because i still have big dreams, but they're dimming, necessarily the case when every day is a struggle to maneuver through, and where sleep lets me visit those who've slipped away, in some form or another. we never talk, because they're only dreams. but being able to look at someone again, remember what it was that made them special: that's worth something. some days it feels like one of the few good things i get to feel.

if you're struggling, i see you. if things feel grim, i feel you. it's not just you. you're not alone.

journal