Born to Be a Slow-Burn Girl, Forced to Burn Out (Career Edition)

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I have a lot to say under the umbrella of “slow burn to burnout,” because it feels like most areas of my life orbit around this exact tension.

Things. People. Events. Situations.

They all seem to demand ease — results that come quickly, answers that arrive instantly, and work that’s done right away.

And if not?

Then burn. Burn until you feel like there’s nothing left. Until your thoughts feel like ash and your spirit is as down-hearted as it shouldn’t be.

But maybe I’ll just talk about one or two things for now. I kinda wanna make this a series, if God and time permits and depending on what I can. So here goes nothing…

Career Edition

Lately, the demand for growth has increased exponentially and the pace has doubled like never before. I don’t know if it’s just me, but it suddenly feels like I’m expected to know exactly what to do and be independent. As if stepping into this new chapter called “adulting” or the “real world,” as they say, was as easy as eating a piece of cake after a full-course dinner.

It’s bums me, ‘coz I feel like I’m demanded more than I can bear and more than my capacity at the moment. I feel like trying was never an option — apparently, even now, winning is still expected of me. And don’t get me started on the endless talk about migrating abroad, which, by the way, is excessively exhausting to hear.

I get how people around me want to see me succeed and just want the best for me, but wouldn’t it be nice for me to just experience this life, step-by-step, as we all should? Wouldn’t it be much more thriving, if I learned things as I experienced them?

Can I at least try?

Can I take this new season slowly and learn to endure it at my own pace?

Can I please allow myself to fail for once or twice and not be buried in shame for it? Will that be too much?

Funny — I haven’t even started working yet, and I’m already exhausted by expectations that feel steeper than any building I’ll ever have to climb in the future.

Funny how words — mere words — can wear you down like labor.

Funny how hard it is to build your confidence, just to watch it fall as easily.

I want to embrace this path I’m taking — I’m slowly finding the motivation to truly love my career. But with all this pressure, I can’t help but question myself:

Is it shallow of me to choose a profession driven by opportunity and income?

Because I’ll tell you, I may say I want to be really rich, but life is more than all of this.

Life must be lived. Life must be felt. Life should be driven by purpose.

We are not made for burnout. We are not wired to worship paychecks.

We are designed to worship One Master — Not money. Not status. Not even success.

So maybe the slow burn isn’t weakness. Maybe there’s wisdom in embracing the unknown. Maybe there’s something sacred in pausing — In breathing it all in. And maybe, just maybe… That slow, steady flame is exactly what keeps the soul alive.

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