Don’t Move On

“Move on.” I shared this hackneyed, albeit time-honored, piece of wisdom with a friend in trouble, many moons ago. To my surprise, my friend gave a frustrated reply, “move on is overrated!”

Merely a few years later, I had to contemplate my own advice. I realized that we may not like to move on, and sometimes, we cannot move on. My friend was right. We may be in no hurry to move on because sometimes, some things are worth clinging on to.

I then began reflecting on the possible antonyms of these two golden words. Failing to come up with a good option, I went on to social media in a last-ditch effort to crowdsource suggestions. Many new ideas were floated, such as “stay there”, “stay put”, “hang on”, “carry on” — but none struck a chord with me. These suggestions simply failed to rival the simplicity with which “move on” grasps an entire philosophy of life. In the same way, I wanted to find and coin a phrase that can inspire people not to abandon their past and emotions.

Rather than treating these as a cocoon a caterpillar must shed to grow, we need to consider them as a protective shell which we must pull tighter around us for warmth and comfort in testing times. After all, these emotions make us who we are. It is good to embrace these emotions to spend time mulling over them, and to understand what they are trying to tell us. In an effort to move on from such emotions, we end up rushing past our most meaningful life experiences and relationships — especially the ones with ourselves. And so, even if these emotions hurt us, deep down, we must carry them along with us and hold on to them as they are intertwined with our identities.

As I pen down this sentence, the phrase “hold on” tugs at my heart. Perhaps, I have found a reasonable antonym of “move on” — and, hence, the title of my first novel inspired by a conversation with a friend.