"If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving." Martin Luther King

This is third time I am rewriting this piece. I am just perfectly unable to string the right words together, striking a balance between telling a story and not being too emotional.

Sometimes in 2021, I began a thread of taking pictures that served as a reminder of people and places I didn’t want to find myself in the following year, with the caption “Move on, there’s life ahead.” It was a ritual that kind of worked. When I began to second guess, I would often go back to the picture.

It was my thing, and somehow it works for me. However, the year is running to an end, and there are a few places I don’t want to find myself anymore, physically or mentally. There are people I don’t want to be around anymore—people I have truly loved and vice versa—but sometimes, loving yourself is more important.

The first person would be my introverted self. I think I have hidden so long in that skin that I have refused to grow into someone else. I have taken time to journal, and I think I need to embrace a lot of things. One of many is that I should go out more often, meet new people, and try out new things.

To curvе the spread of my personal story, the purpose of this article is to remind you that often times, “what got you here, won’t get you there.”

You'd break a few hearts; it might cost you a few nights or a few napkins for your tears, but move on. There is life ahead, but you would never know until you move.