Thinking, what’s that? - Konyou Enatsu
May 31, 2025
“Thinking, do people actually do that? Or are they just stupid?” - Flay Ming-Akori
May 31, 2025
“Thinking, do people actually do that? Or are they just stupid?” - Flay Ming-Akori
There I was–leaning against the wall, deep into my thoughts. Or at least, I’m pretty sure I was. Honestly, it’s pretty hard to tell nowadays. Sometimes, I catch myself staring off into the void, wondering if I’ll ever solve the big questions in life. . . or if I just completely forgot what I was supposed to be doing in the first place. The thing is, thinking sounds like something productive. You’ll hear these common phrases of 'critical thinking' and believe it to be difficult, but honestly, I don’t find it all too useful. Nobody ever talks about other forms of thinking, the kind where your brain just drifts off into a whole different world mid-sentence and suddenly you’re questioning the entire history of lamps or wondering if penguins have knees.
It’s even harder when you have to actually try to think for real. Forget about it, the moment I say something like, “Take a moment to think,” my brain begins to buffer like my favorite pirated movie websites. Anything useful in my mind completely exits, and I’m literally left humming elevator music in my head. Like, please hold–I’m pretending to use my brain power. However, I’d like to mention there are those rare moments where useful thoughts actually appear. All of a sudden you’re a genius, and just like that–it’s gone. Now my eyes jump around the room like a grasshopper running from a lawn mower, or jumping? Well, that’s off topic, maybe I’ll just have to end up checking my phone instead to hide my embarrassment.
And honestly, have you noticed that the harder you try and think, the worse it gets? It’s like your brain knows you’re forcing it and it just goes out on strike in spite of you. This puts me into the situation where I’m ****yzing the texture of the wall I’m leaning on, wondering why the bricks aren’t all the exact same. Now I’m an architect, apparently. Not exactly what I needed when I was supposed to be coming up with something smart to say five minutes ago.
Then there’s the social part of it. You’re sitting in the middle of class, or having a deep conversation, and someone hits you with a, “What do you think about that?” Panic mode engaged–now you’re scrambling to piece together whatever fragments of thoughts you have between imagining those penguins from earlier and counting the tiles on the ceiling. All for me to end up giving a ‘thoughtful nod’ and say, “Hmm, yeah–that’s interesting.” It actually works most of the time, at least I’d like to think so.
And, let’s not even get started about overthinking. That’s when thinking decides to completely turn on you. One second you’re casually thinking about your next meal, and the next thing you know, you’ve begun to spiral into depression of past decisions and how easily they could’ve been avoided. How did I even get here? No idea–but, now I’m mentally reliving the awkward things of my past–like how I peed my pants in the middle of my class while exercising.
At this point, I’m starting to think that thinking is just one big scam. Like, are we actually figuring anything out, or is that voice in our head just trying to keep ourselves entertained with some side quests? I mean, if anyone out there actually genuinely reached their enlightenment phase while staring at a brick wall, please teach me your methods. Until then, I’ll be here–probably zoning out again, unfortunately.
In the end, I guess thinking is just one of those things you pretend to be good at. It can sound impressive, and you can yap about all the impressive things you’ve done, but it’ll never be perfect. Yeah, I’m still working on it. Maybe tomorrow, or the next day even–I’ll actually think about it. Who really knows, am I right–yeah. . . I hope I am.
