Esme Stewart

Back in 2021/22 I almost completely stopped voluntarily listening to music. Not out of protest or as some kind of mindfulness practice, but because the sheer amount of music available to me, combined with my mental health at the time (like a lot of people, the post Covid years were dark ones), meant that I couldn’t listen to a song all the way through without skipping it. It was compulsive. Even songs I liked didn’t make it all the way through to the end.

A deadly serious, not-at-all-satire guide to surviving - no THRIVING - in your 20s

My entire life I’ve struggled to know what my purpose is. Whenever I imagined my future it was never my career I pictured. I didn’t lie awake at night dreaming about a job title - I was picturing dinner tables, growing old with friends and a house full of people I loved. But the one thing that I was never sure of was what I wanted to spend 90% of my life actually doing.