August 16, 2025
It’s strange how time seems to slip through your fingers the older you get. When I look back, it feels like yesterday when I was graduating with my bachelor’s degree, packing my bags to move to the UK, finishing my master’s, and finally landing my first job. That job was such a milestone, I can still remember the adrenaline of getting the offer, the sense of relief after so many months of grinding, and the excitement of opening my laptop to work for the first time.
And then, just like that, two years passed. Two years of work, routines, habits, and a life that now feels… comfortable. Don’t get me wrong, I have been very grateful of the years, I have definitely learned and grown so much like traveling to different countries, showing my life in the UK to my parents and siblings, getting into new sports and hobbies and in general becoming a better person. Now however, it feels like I have gotten too comfortable.
There’s a peculiar thing about comfort, it doesn’t announce itself loudly. It creeps in quietly, like a warm blanket on a cold morning. At first, it feels like safety, but soon it becomes a resistance. The kind of resistance where every cell in your body screams to stay in bed, magnified a thousand times, holding you back from stepping outside that familiar zone.
That’s where the fear of plateauing comes in. On one side, there’s the fear of leaving comfort behind, risking failure, embarrassment, or wasting effort in pursuit of something uncertain. On the other, there’s the quieter but heavier fear; What if this is it? What if I’ve already reached the ceiling of what I can do, and the rest of my life is just repeating the same loop with slightly different details?
And then the questions begin to spiral. What exactly does growth mean here? Is it climbing the careers ladder to a senior role? Jumping ship for a shiner company with fancier perks? A side hustle, some creative pursuit, or something more personal like traveling?
Honestly, I don’t know the answer. I am sure growth looks different for everyone. Maybe it’s not about titles, money or big changes, but about just staying awake to life.
“I refuse to let the days blur together unnoticed” is what I just said to myself.
Maybe keeping that conviction is the way to go forward. What I do know is that when the growth happens, whatever form it takes, I believe I will feel it. The same way I felt that rush of excitement when I first got my job, the same way I felt when I moved countries and the same way I felt when I have had other life changing moments.
Until then, maybe the real task is learning to sit with this discomfort while constantly trying to push myself towards newer things and not letting it trick me into thinking I’ve stopped moving coz I know I have not.