The Fog Was Never Yours

A lot of people think having an imaginary mind is childish. Unprofessional. That logic is what society wants from us because it proves we're mature, responsible adults. But here's what I learned: when I was younger, living in my imagination was one of my strongest allies. It brought me closure. Protection. Peace. Sometimes just sitting with your own thoughts and your own feelings makes you feel more alive than anything anyone else could validate about you. I lived in the fog for years. Trying to make that boss happy. Making that friend feel like they were on top of the world. Giving a lover unconditional love even when it wasn't coming back. Showing up for family who would never show up for me. Letting people gloat about their lives just to make me feel like mine didn't measure up. But what if the imagination you were living in was actually the real reality? And the logic they put on you — that's the fear. That's the version of the world society wants you to believe you have to perform for. Be mature. Be serious. Meet everybody else's expectations so you can be acknowledged, seen, known. What if the truth is the opposite? What if the version of you that just is — the childlike, unfiltered, unbothered version — that's the one that's actually real? I'm not saying abandon logic. I'm saying stop letting it be the cage. Logic has its place. But so does imagination. And somewhere along the way, we were taught that the dreamer inside us was the problem — when really, the dreamer was the one keeping us alive. A lot of us need to go back to that childhood stage of mindset. Not childish — childlike. Just being who you are. Not worried about what other people think. You don't have to be mature all the time. You don't have to be serious all the time. Sometimes you just need to be yourself. This isn't me fighting back and forth with myself. This isn't a debate between two halves of me. This is just clarity. Released into the world, for whoever needs it. — Kaminski Daley