If your feed has been anything like mine, the past few weeks have been incredibly draining.
These are just a few things I’ve been feeling: angry, sad, discouraged, a little hopeless and absolutely exhausted.
The sadness and heaviness were inescapable. Even Twitter didn’t make me laugh like it used to.
I went through weeks of feeling extremely low and genuinely felt as though I was on the edge of another depressive episode. So for once, I chose to put myself first.
I deleted my social media apps off my phone. I stopped checking the news every five minutes. I stopped engaging in conversations about what was going on. I started trying to feed myself properly. I started going for walks just to get some fresh air.
I just needed little escapes so I could get back to feeling steady.
Yet, I felt guilty for taking the time to care for myself.
I thought if all revolutionaries thought and acted the way I just had, black people wouldn’t have made the progress they have today in society.
But I’m here to tell you that you are not a revolutionary. At least most of us aren’t anyway.
You are of no use to anyone if you don’t care for yourself first.
Today’s political climate is tough to navigate, and as a collective, I don’t know what we ought to do. I don’t have the answers. Luckily, there are much more qualified people than me to speak about what we should do.
What I will say is the hectic way in which people are trying to tackle the intersection of several significant social issues is unsustainable and going to lead to us all being burnt out.
You know when you haven’t exercised for months and then you see that one Instagram post that suddenly makes you feel really motivated? You’re not eating any junk food; you’re doing hour-long workouts every day.
You last for two weeks. Maybe three. Then all of a sudden, you realize the lifestyle is unsustainable, and you revert to all of your bad habits.
We don’t want the same thing to happen here.
Fixing this broken system is a marathon and not a sprint.
