Which Title Would You Give This Chapter of Your Life?

Written November 2022, Zakopane, Poland

“Experimental Wandering.” The words hung in the air between us, and I found myself nodding before I even fully understood why. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how we define the moments we’re in, so I started asking the people I’ve crossed paths with—while hiking in the Tatra Mountains—Which title would you give this chapter of your life? I didn’t expect the answers to stay with me as long as they have, but each response felt like a window into a person’s world, and I wanted to linger there just a little longer.

Here are some titles, I remember:

• Experimental Wandering
• Space to Breathe
• Embrace Change
• Brave
• Beginnings

There’s something profoundly intimate about asking someone to distill their present existence into just a few words. In those titles, I’ve witnessed both struggle and strength, hesitation and hope. And the stories behind them—those are the ones that truly made me pause.

The Stories Behind the Titles

I listened as someone described the moment they finally found the courage to walk away from a long-term relationship that no longer served them. Their voice carried both sorrow and relief, a quiet kind of bravery that comes from choosing oneself after years of forgetting how. They exhaled slowly, as if releasing a weight they had been holding for too long.

Another person told me about spending just 24 hours with a complete stranger and feeling such a deep connection that they’re now considering taking a leap into something new, something unknown—something that might just be love. Their face lit up as they spoke, equal parts excitement and terror flickering in their expression.

Then there was the person who had just left home for the first time, their hands wrapped tightly around a coffee cup, speaking about the thrill and fear of starting fresh. And another who hadn’t been home in three years, their voice quieter, their journey a testament to independence, growth, and the complexity of belonging. Two very different paths, yet both tied together by the same thread—trusting oneself enough to step forward into the unknown.

Turning the Question Inward

These conversations have made me look at my own life through a different lens. Which title would I give this chapter of mine? Am I in a phase of exploration, of stillness, of transition? Am I chasing something, or am I learning to stay still? And perhaps more importantly—am I living this chapter fully, or am I waiting for something to push me forward?

Maybe my title is Standing at the Edge. Maybe it’s Becoming. Or maybe I’m still searching for the right words, unsure of where this chapter leads but knowing, at the very least, that I want to be present for every page of it.

So, before we end, I’ll leave you with this question to ponder yourself—which title would you give this chapter of your life?

And if you don’t have an answer yet, maybe that’s okay.

Maybe the title reveals itself only once we’ve truly lived the pages.