I took my daughter to see the movie version of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and it was incredible. All her best songs from each album of her life put together - all the good parts.
It got me thinking of my own life as an eras tour. Except we don’t get to pick and choose which parts make the cut.
My late teens were rocky. Mostly because I was unwell without knowing it and then later was diagnosed with lupus. This threw what I had envisioned my journey to be in a completely different direction. When I hit my 20s, where you would expect to emerge as a beautiful butterfly ready to take on the world… I felt like a moth aimlessly fluttering trying to find some light. It was in this early part of my 20s era that my mental health really declined.
With the support of counselling and a stay at an incredible facility, my life was reassembled and I started a new era with hope. It was supported by a toolbox of skills I had gained that I knew I would always need to stay on track. Travelling towards my 30s, I started to understand how the lows of the previous eras were not to be ashamed of and part of what made me who I am today. They put me on paths to meet certain people, learn certain things and find passions I may not have found. Obviously, we don’t wish to experience pits to get to our peaks but if we must, it’s positive to think of them as being part of the puzzle to creating who we are, our bigger picture.
Sometimes things are not easy or straightforward. We face challenges. Sometimes so many it can feel like we are in a boat with a leak and the water is filling faster than we can empty it. We stand back and think, “Why us? Do I even bother trying to empty this water out?” But as we progress through life, I felt it important to let you know there comes a day you look back. Instead of it being a reminder of sadness and exhaustion, you realise while you bucketed that water out, you learned patience, resilience, gratitude for managing to keep yourself somewhat afloat and eventually an erupting glow of pride that you got through. That overwhelming flow of water did not beat you.
Taylor Swift is at her peak today because of all the eras before. Not all her songs were a smash hit but they are a part of her catalogue that make up her music journey. Just like all our eras make up our life story, some are great and some we would rather rush past. But they are a part of our journey and as long as we have hope, we carry our toolbox and we surround ourselves with an epic crowd. We can get through to the next era ahead.
-Sarah
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