Today I came across the words turn the page and it really got me thinking about the past, present and the future. For me, turning the page is about moving forward. When you’re reading a book, once you’ve read the page the next thing that needs to be done is to turn the page and read onwards. As an avid book reader, when I get super attached to the characters and something bad happens, my immediate response is, “nope nope not going to continue” and I put down the book, walk over to my sister’s room and I just fall to the ground and moan. This is probably something that happens way too frequently but what I’ve learnt is that, me groaning and refusing to read the next page doesn’t change the fact that something bad happened to the characters. It’s inevitable to forget it because what I’ve read, I’ve read. If the character died and I just read that the character died, if I refuse to turn the page it doesn’t change the obvious fact that the character died.

I feel this way about my life as well.

I’m always on the same page, re-reading the same words that have continued to haunt me and then I turn around and complain but it doesn’t make sense. I am the one who is refusing to turn the page yet I’m complaining that life is unfair and that I’m so sad and really, all that I have to do is turn the page and move on. Turning the page is like a new start. Without turning the page I am never going to be able to get to the end of my story. Without turning the page, I’m going to be stuck and eventually, I’m going to wither and struggle and never get to the end. Whatever happened in the past, honestly there’s no point in holding onto it and being chained by it.

And you never know, turning the next page might reveal that the character that died is in fact still truly alive.