Letters to Viv: Pride and Presence
On the quiet erosion of care, and why showing up still matters.
Letters to Viv
Open, soul-packed letters to the kind of human I write for: the curious, creative, exhausted by the hustle, and craving something more. I’m writing to you (and me).
Dear Viv,
Lately, I keep bumping into the same thing.
Papers filed with the wrong names.
Baristas who look straight through me.
Replies to emails that don’t answer the question asked.
It’s not the mistakes that floor me. It’s the absence.
The absence of pride. The absence of presence.
When did pride vanish from everyday life?
When did people stop caring about how their work reflected on them?
Does anyone pause anymore to ask, “What does this say about me?”
Or are we all wandering about half-asleep, bodies moving, spirits checked out?
Maybe it’s me.
Maybe I’ve become that woman muttering “back in my day” under her breath.
But I don’t think so. I think you see it too.
You, though.
You still care.
You still show up. You still want your work, your words, your presence to mean something.
And I know it’s tiring, feeling like you’re the only one holding the line.
I’m right there with you, Viv.
Frustrated and tired of chasing down the bare minimum.
And yet I can’t shake the belief that presence matters. That how we show up still matters.
So, if you’ve been doubting yourself and started to feel like maybe you’re the odd one out for caring too much, you’re not.
We’re not.
We’re the ones refusing to sleepwalk.
And honestly? I’d rather be the eejit waiting five minutes for a lukewarm tea than the one who is too checked out to notice.
XO,
Tanya