Trust the process

Madness is doing the same thing over and over again. Like, having a stare-down at the clock, attempting your best Thomas Shelby death stare. Blinking once and hoping that 5 hours will do you the favor of lapsing away to oblivion.

Hope is a dangerous thing but this time, let's just say it lacks the audacity to move a minute hand let alone a molehill. The clock being none the wiser ambles away ever so slowly.

Something about time taking its sweet time activates super powers lying dormant within you. Specifically, the super power of awareness. A quick glance at the ceiling reveals an intricate pattern of wooden strips, whose interconnecting edges fall at regular intervals to form a hyphenated line. On a day like this, you have to admire such immaculate craftsmanship.

What else does this beauty of a bedroom have to offer? Well, a glance sideways this time makes you want to turn sideways. A film of dust has plastered the laptop's monitor, serving almost as a default screen protector.

Then there's the half-eaten apple reposing under the other bed. A position it has occupied for the better part of a month. The spider webs at each of the corners of the underside of that bed not only stimulate your tingle but threaten to unleash another spider-verse altogether.

Your conscience knows the jig is up.

"Cmon broski, this fake-it-till you-make-it can only take you so far," you tell yourself.

Your bedroom is in a desperate need of a glow up. Far from being an embarrassment of riches, it is an embarrassment. Plain and simple.

For the umpteenth time, the low-battery notification pops up. Binging on shorts has depleted your phone's power. This phone has been running on empty for a while. It's been on 1% for almost 20 minutes. You have to admire its resilience.

How you wish that Apple could make longer cables so you wouldn't have to hike to the other side of the room to charge your phone. How hard could that be, Apple? Then it hits you, you can just move the extension cable closer.

Summoning the last reserves of your strength, you rouse yourself up, taking almost a minute to plant one foot on the floor. One foot and not one kiss is all it takes, as you stretch out your hand to pull the cable closer to your bed. Problem solved. Genius. "Sometimes even I surprise myself," you rightfully conclude.

Another of your exceptional capabilities is memory. One that your phone sadly doesn't share. The iPhone keeps inundating with reminders to do something about it. You know the culprit is WhatsApp and those group videos. It would be oh-so simple to just delete them, but the FOMO in you reckons you could be missing out on your AHA moment.

The first video you check is 7 min. A few seconds in and you realize this will be the death of you. You don't have the time. Never mind you have spent the last 77 minutes exclusively on YouTube watching videos. Never mind you have a whole midmorning, lunch, afternoon and evening to yourself.

You know you should continue. You know you could clean up your room. You decide to do something much better.

"That hyphenated line on the ceiling is just glorious."