Amelia Fryer

12th April 2026

The best analogy of life that I’ve come across recently is that life is a river –  it ebbs and flows, some bits are smooth and calm where you could see the ripple from a pin drop in the water; some bits are like that until you reach a waterfall where something life altering happens and just sends you straight off the edge; and some bits are like rapids, slamming you into every rock and obstacle that it can until you come out the other side battered and bruised and beaten.

But absolutely no matter what, it does not stop flowing. Life moves on whether you want it to or not. Nature doesn’t stop for your breakup, the loss of your job, your failed exam – the earth still spins, the stars still shine at night, and time moves forward. I think that’s why I find such comfort in the river analogy, and why I find myself staring at rivers for hours on end, and why I find the sound of one so soothing; whether it’s deafening rapids or a near-silent trickle.

The other thing about a river is that even if things try and stop it flowing, not much really can. You can put a rock in a stream but the water will still flow over or around it, you can’t’ just stop something that’s supposed to go the way it is universally willed to – just like life. No matter how hard you try and change your feelings, or stop the things that feel natural and right, they will always work out the way they should in the end.

So, why fight the flow of the river, when you could flow with it? Feel what you feel, don’t be ashamed to never hide who you are or what you feel or how much you feel those things. Personally, I feel everything at 100%, no more and no less. If I’m upset I may as well be in the depths of despair, but if I’m happy I’m on top of the fucking world.

I got used to dimming my emotions down, reducing them in intensity in order for those around me to feel less uncomfortable – but if there’s one vulgar phrase I’ve learned to live by and feel every single day it’s: ‘fuck it’. In the words of one of the icons of my childhood Dove Cameron: “embrace your muchness”. Who cares if you can’t feel things less than with every part of yourself, or if you could talk enough for the country, or if you get excited about little things like finding a pinecone on the floor? If you care, and you’re happy, that’s all that should matter.

I don’t want to hide how much and what I feel anymore, and I don’t think anyone should have to reduce themselves or facets of their personalities in order to conform to what the majority of human society might deem as ‘normal’. Get excited about those pinecones or the stuffed animal in IKEA, about fairy lights and funky jewellery and dresses with pockets – because another one of my favourite things to live by is that, if everyone was the same, and no one was weird, the world would be incredibly boring.

Life is a river, so just flow with it.

Featured image credit: taken by Amelia Fryer in Glencoe.