For a long time, the idea of letting go terrified me. Letting go of things, experiences, places and people, it’s all just so overwhelming, like a leap, except that the ditch is so big you’re almost certain your feet can’t touch the stretch of land on the other side.

But here’s what I’ve learnt — at a certain point in life, if you’re not expected, you’re forced to let go of something you hold dear, and I don’t mean the Barbie you had when you were nine; I mean something real. At a certain point in life, you have to let it go, let that sink in. How long do you want yourself to give up a garden just because you received a rose?

Even though I am still young to say this, it’s no wonder that even at 15 years of age, I’ve found peace in letting go. I’ve found that things or even people simply change and it’s plain stupid to expect things to remain the same when you live in a world that constantly evolves. You don’t have to remain the same nine-year-old who can’t live without her Barbie; you’re allowed to take a step back and box it away and maybe this isn’t even about a Barbie anymore.

If it doesn’t align with your beliefs, notions, ideas, or your take on things. Trust me when I tell you, it’s time to let it go. You don’t have to hold on to a string that dangles loose from the other end/hand. You don’t have the hold on just because you can’t let go.

You owe that to yourself!

Then there are those things that mean so much to you that you can’t walk away, something about it just doesn’t feel right. Let it go. If it did mean that much, you wouldn’t be questioning yourself; you wouldn’t be thinking about how much it means for you to not walk away. It doesn’t feel right because it’s guilt. After all, you feel you owe it to them not to walk away, not because you don’t want to. What you do owe them, however, is to let them go, open the cage and watch the bird fly.

Once you understand that for yourself, here’s something else to remember: just as you owe it to yourself to let go, others owe it to themselves to do the same — to let go, even to let you go. These may be people you knew yesterday, so yes, it hurts, yes, it stings and, of course, it burns. But that’s okay. Maybe not today, but it will be.

At the end of each day, you have to make a choice — do what’s best for yourself. That doesn’t make you a bad person and it doesn’t mean you’re selfish. You’re just human. Most of the time, it’s not about anyone else; it’s about learning how to let go and take care of yourself.

But the most important thing to understand is that it’s not only okay to let go — it’s also okay to not know everything yet.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 27th, 2025