Ahhhā¦ If I would only have more time toā¦
To do what?
Ohhā¦ Believe me I have,
But I choose to waste it by snapping every place I go,
And every moment I laugh or I just pretend I am laughing so people will see that I am very happy.
But, am I?
I will tell you my routine, just in case you donāt know.
Every day I wake up and tell people that I woke up.
I go to work and tell people that I am working.
I go to sleep and tell people that I will sleep.
I even dream about posting what I dreamt.
Like they care.
This is what happened to me one day.
My friend asked me out and since I havenāt seen her in a while of course I went out with her.
But what we did was just used our phones, because that is what we do best and did nothing else.
Ohhā¦ Wait!
Yeah we did one thing.
Actually we took a really great picture, posted it and people actually thought that we were having fun.
But, were we?
New Year is comingā¦
You know, itās the time when families are together celebratingā¦
But, no I am not planning thatā¦
I just want to go live for the entire timeā¦
In Instagram or Facebook, I havenāt decided yet.
People like me will do the same thing too,
So no one will see no one, because people donāt care, or do they?
People actually donāt care what I do.
They just swipe my stories because they think I am annoying,
Just like I do with theirs.
People donāt care when I wake up, when I pee, what I eat, or when I sleep.
We canāt be friends if you donāt follow me on Instagram, you are a hater if you donāt like my pictures, but if you unfollow me then itās all over.
We are being such miops.
Instead of creating memories,
We are just creating social media stories,
That will be vanished in 24 hours and will be seen by hundreds of people.
BIG DEAL!
We canāt go anywhere without taking a lot of Snaps, snaps, snaps, snaps, snaps.
And then we ask for our privacyā¦
But, we can never ask for something we never allowed ourselves, right?
We need to open our eyes and live the only damn life we have, just for ourselves not for someone else.
Do you all agree with me?
Great, letās take a selfie.
This poem was performed by the author at the Kosovo Slam Poetry Festival, organized by alumni from the YES youth exchange and study program, and has been published here with permission. The annual festival aims to be a space for young people in Kosovo to express their struggles and social issues through their original verses.