You must have seen several Tiktoks and Instagram reels titled ‘romanticize your life’ and ‘feeling like the main character’. You must be wondering what exactly is ‘romanticising your life’ and ‘being the main character’? What is all this hype about? How does this work? Does this even work? Is this even realistic? Is this just another Gen Z internet trend that would be gone? Don’t worry, I got you. I have personally gone from not having a clue about this at all to using this in my favour.
How I got into romanticising my life?
Before lockdown, my life was super packed and hectic, to the point where it was messing up with my mental health. This is how I was spending my life as a medical student. Every day started with waking up early, getting ready to attend an 8 am offline class, followed by clinical rotations for 3-4 hours straight, going back to the hostel for lunch then attending 3 more hours of offline classes. After this exhausting 8am-5pm college schedule I still had to do chores, finish assignments and study for the next day. I was super exhausted all the time.
But then came the Covid-19 era, aka 2020, when the world literally stopped. There was no college and hence no hustle. Now that I had all the time to overthink, my head was mostly filled with negative thoughts, my insecurities, my failures, my past traumas I had never recovered from. Staring at News channels which only reported about Covid-19 and related issues was making my mental health worse. More so as a medical student, I knew how worse the situation was for patients and health care professionals. While struggling with my mental health, I saw this Instagram reel “You’ve to start romanticizing your life, you’ve to start thinking of yourself as the main character because if you don’t, life will continue to pass you by”. This reel had me thinking of a potential life that I always imagined living. This was the push that I needed to finally get out of my slump and start romanticizing my life, to start appreciating the little moments, to start building a life I had always dreamed of.
How it affected my life?
The grey world seemed a bit more colourful after I started romanticising my life. The only things that are keeping me sane in my hectic life are sun rays on my skin, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, the sage coloured butterfly on a white flower, fluffy clouds in the blue sky on my way back from college, the cool breeze brushing through my hair, unplanned brunches with my best friend, the smell of a new book, grooving to my favourite music, long walk in the evenings, stargazing on a clear windy night. These are the moments where I fall in love with just being alive.
It’s not like all my problems disappeared miraculously, they are still there staring straight into my eyes. I just realized that things will eventually fall into place. I will eventually sort out everything, not at once though. I just started appreciating all the things that I should be grateful for rather than complaining about all the things that I don’t have. I have started to accept my flawed self and my negative emotions. I am falling in love with myself. Each day seems a bit brighter than yesterday. People say that I am living in a whole different world. Yes. I am living in a whole different world, it’s much brighter and safer.
Why do you have to try romanticising your life?
Why? Because life is short. Who cares what other people will think? You have to start believing that the world is much prettier than it seems. You have all the freedom to make your life cute and fun. You have to start truly living your fantasy life. The only person who was stopping me from doing that was me. You have to start looking forward to each day. You don’t have to stick up that boring schedule of yours, just spice it up a bit. Make it a little more exciting.
You don’t have to buy expensive bougie things to romanticise your life. You can romanticise your life without being aesthetically perfect. You can romanticise your not so aesthetic coffee, not so pretty commute, not so cute outfit. It is not about trying to have an aesthetically pleasing life. This is all about you loving yourself and enjoying all the little things that make you happy. The whole point of ‘romanticising your life’ and thinking of yourself as the ‘main character’ is to appreciate those little things, those little moments that go unnoticed. So, boys and girls start believing you’re the main character. Start treating yourself like one because YOU ARE the main character. You are the stuff that you hear in fairy tales, read in romantic novels and watch in romantic movies. You are a whole Studio Ghibli movie material.
Start going to the music lessons that you always wanted to, go for the craziest hair colour you were always afraid of getting, go to that solo trip you always feared. Stop waiting for someone else to make you feel loved. Let’s fall in love with ourselves. Let’s be kind to ourselves. Let’s live our life the way we want. Let’s appreciate every moment. Life is way too short to stay in a miserable place waiting for a miracle.
If you would like to read more about this unique and amazing outtake on life, or would like to read more of SHR med students’ content, check out their Instagram @your.med.inspo.