life in sections

I divide up my life into a lot of sections. Big sections, small sections - weeks, days, months, eras, periods, bits, weekends, holidays, afternoons. Self structured sections - “this is a time when I need to focus, work a job, settle into a routine for a bit.” “These next few weeks I’m able to take a break - slow down and clear my head.’ 

Thinking back to the Summer of 2019, maybe it was 2018, I went to Montreal for a month and worked in a hostel then the plan was to get a bus to Boston to visit my cousins. Those months hold a bit of extra weight and have more of a shape than the months before and after that summer, it was a massively influential time where I felt completely independent. But that summer existed within a larger timespan, an “era” which I’ve nicknamed it, where I had just gone to art school and was experiencing a lot of new freedoms and interacting with lots of new people. Other ‘eras’ I would describe as my third and final year of art school including when I went on exchange to Helsinki for 6 months (one of the best times of my life) or the ‘era’ after I graduated when I fell in love, moved back to London and was looking for work during Covid lockdowns. 

To me these periods of time are quite distinct from one another - there’s a different vibration/colour and mood to each one.  But the fractal continues - essentially all these eras fit into one, otherwise called ‘my early twenties’. 

This brings up a lot of questions. Are there any reference points - essentially how do I know when I’m in an era or specific period of my life? How do I know when one ends and a new one begins? Some examples I could think of was, moving to a different city, starting/leaving a job, a changing of mindset. 

Ultimately I think it’s important to be aware of the different parts of my life, reckoning with where I’ve been, where I’m going and being aware of what’s giving shape to my days, my weeks and my life. It’s comforting to me to give shape to my life, a way of understanding what’s going on around me and connecting the dots and understanding where I’ve come from.

Overall, sections and periods of my life are separated into two branches of thought - the ones I structured and the ones society has kind of structured. And within both of these, I am able to look back to bits of my life, reflect on what has happened and work to shape my future.