16/09/2026
LITERARY | There is no deadline for becoming
There is a line in Billy Joel’s Vienna that says, “Slow down, you’re doing fine. You can’t be everything you wanna be before your time.”
I didn’t know that a simple line from a song could become a place to rest—a place I could return to whenever I felt like I was being left behind by the world.
While you are still trying to figure out where you belong and whether you are even moving in the right direction, some people already seem to know where they are going, what they want, and who they want to become.
When everything around you seems to be moving, it is easy to believe that you should be moving too, as though life has set a deadline for everything.
A deadline to succeed.
A deadline to figure yourself out.
A deadline to become someone you can be proud of.
And when you have not reached those things yet, you begin to wonder if you are already falling behind.
But maybe becoming was never meant to happen all at once.
Maybe there are things we need to experience first. Maybe there are versions of ourselves we need to outgrow before we can become the person we want to be.
We are so used to thinking that everything has to happen as soon as possible. We rush through school, careers, relationships, and even our own growth, as if living faster meant living better.
But we don’t have to know everything now. We don’t have to have all the answers.
You don’t have to build your entire life while you are still figuring out what kind of life you want. Be gentle with yourself. It’s your first time living too.
Some dreams need time to grow. Some paths only become clear after a few wrong turns. Some versions of ourselves need to get lost before they can find their way home.
So, if you feel like you are being left behind, maybe you are not. Maybe you are simply taking the time to become someone you are not ready to be yet.
Perhaps that is what Vienna came to remind me of—not that we should stop trying, but that we do not have to rush into becoming who we are meant to be.
Your life is not late just because it looks different from everyone else’s—because you do not have to arrive at the same time as everyone else.
Take your time.
Breathe.
Rest when you need to.
Walk at your own pace.
And remember that being unfinished is not the same as being behind.
You are not late.
You are not running out of time.
You are simply becoming—in your own time.
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(by Lady Montalban | Probationary)
(layout by Jeanbee Navarro | Probationary)
