The Downfall of an Overthinker
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Once upon a time, there was a girl. She was intelligent, she was ambitious, she was strong. Most of all, she was an overthinker. She would drive past fields of flowers and rather than immerse herself in their beauty, she would ask herself, “Why would someone grow so many flowers? What is the purpose of them?”
The girl grew up to be a woman, and this mindset stuck with her, making her an outstanding student and leading her down a widely successful career path. She never accepted a simple answer. She always second-guessed what she was told, she thought about all sides of an issue, and she was thoughtful. Others looked up to her for her understanding and her curiosity. She was a natural-born leader.
Sooner or later, the woman became a mother, and an amazing mother she was. She was always one step ahead of the game because she would wake up thinking of all of the possibilities her daughter would face that day, mentally preparing for each one.
Years down the line, when she was driving her daughter home from school after a long day of work, her daughter looked out the window and innocently asked, “Why would they grow so many flowers?” The mother wanted to reply, “I don’t know the answer, but don’t worry about it, just look at how pretty they are,”
But she knew she couldn’t give her daughter that answer, because every time she drove past a field of flowers, she wondered the same damn thing.
Days passed, and the mother could not stop thinking about the question. Why did she overthink such a simple and beautiful thing? Why could she not just accept the easy answer in life, ever? Often drowning in her thoughts, she had spent too many restless nights awake analyzing the previous day, too many mornings reading the news, trying to solve global issues in her own head, too many precious hours wasted: overthinking.
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She blamed the fast-paced world around her, a world where everything was changing all of the time. A world where almost everything is criticized, when the bar of perfection was always being raised, a world where nothing really was as simple as it seemed. She wanted to be able to not think so hard about everything in her life for just one second.
Later that week, she was driving her daughter home from school after a day of work again, and as they were passing the field of flowers, she slowed down and turned into the long, windy driveway that led to the owner's house. She got out of the car, still wearing her pantsuit and work shoes, and marched through the dusty walkway and knocked on the door. When the owner’s opened the door, she was surprised to see two people, dressed just like her, who had just gotten home from a day of work at an office job. Confused at how busy people like her could dedicate so much time to a field of flowers, she asked them “Why do you grow the flowers?”
Their answer was simple: “Well, look at how beautiful they are. That’s why.”
The woman stood there, and with tears building in her eyes, she realized some things really are that simple. Sometimes there is no need to overthink. Sometimes life really is just beautiful, and sometimes you just have to embrace it.
She thanked the couple, got back in her car where her daughter was still waiting, and she finally answered her daughter’s question. “They grow the flowers because they are pretty, not for any other reason.” In telling her daughter this, she hoped it would stick with the girl for her whole life, reminding her every day to embrace the wonderful, simple things life has to offer as they are, to not overthink when it is not necessary, as she had wished she had done for herself.
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Strike Out,
Caroline Kostuch
Editor: Jordan Ross
Athens