The evening sky over the Federal Highway isn’t so much a sunset as it is a bruised purple mess, and I’m regretting every life choice that led me to be stuck right here at 6:30 PM. While the office air-conditioning was a blissful escape, the reality outside is a symphony of honking horns and brake lights stretching all the way to Subang. My phone vibrates in the cup holder not a friendly hello, but another urgent reminder in the company group chat about tomorrow’s KPI report. Honestly, I just want to get home to a cold Milo ais and a moment of quiet before the whole cycle starts over again. We are masters of the daily grind, but somewhere between clocking out and fighting the crawl on the highway, I think we've all lost sight of what we're actually rushing toward.
We spend our days collecting stress like aunties hoarding Tupperware during a supermarket sale. We fear the performance review, we worry about what the neighbours will say, and we secretly dread the quiet moments when there’s no screen to scroll through. Fear becomes that uninvited passenger in the backseat, growing fat on deadlines and the pressure of keeping up appearances.
Yet, if you park yourself at a roadside stall and watch an uncle patiently fold roti canai with absolute focus, you witness something completely different. He isn't anxious about his LinkedIn profile or market disruption; he’s just making good bread because that’s his purpose for the moment.
The purpose of life isn't hidden inside a corporate slide deck or a motivational video. Without a reason for living that actually belongs to us, all this frantic running around is just expensive cardio. But here is the thing about fear: it's mostly a phantom we build ourselves out of worry. The moment you actually stop, take a breath, and look it in the eye, the monster shrinks. It turns out the cage door was unlocked the entire time.
Annan Vaithegi - Personal Thought
"We spend half our lives running from imaginary tigers in the dark, only to realize in the evening light that it was just a stray cat knocking over the rubbish bin."
Annan Vaithegi (annanvaithegi@icloud.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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