The Floating Man: Just Let Go

The floating man drifts through life without direction, he finds freedom in his weightlessness. What's left when you let go of everything you think you want? 

When sitting down and designing my first collection, I knew I wanted to make a piece that captured the feeling so many people experience in the formative years of their twenties and thirties: a quiet confusion brought about by an attempt to label yourself. We try to cling at labels just as our friends and society at large does and has always done. 

"I'm a doctor."
"I'm an entrepreneur."
"I'm a writer."
"I'm an artist."
"I'm an engineer."

Suddenly, you feel the pressure to choose a label to. You create an artificial sense of "want". But where does that desire stem from? Societal expectations? A need for self-worth? Irregardless, you need something. In fact, it almost feels necessary. I have suffered greatly from this, quietly, as I am sure many others have. We don't seem to question it. Instead, we try to pigeonhole ourselves into boxes, to fit the mold that society deems acceptable. We frantically search for that "one thing" that makes us, us. We scurry in a frenzy, as if that identity will deem us more valid and worthy in both our eyes and those around us.

But as we grow older, I think we start to realize that all this seeking and striving was ultimately aimless. It may sound cliche at this point, but everything we have ever wanted has been sitting there, staring right at us all this time. A cosmic joke of sorts.

There was never a need to become. You were already there. 

In a world full of self-improvement and spiritual gurus telling you what you need to do in order to become your best self, the Floating Man offers another path forward: let it all go.

He floats through life without the need for accomplishments, without labels, without the need to prove anything to himself or anyone else. He simply drifts, allowing life to wash over him as it naturally does, without resistance or outside interference. 

We are merely players in this strange game called life. I think many would be terrified if they truly reflected and realized what little control we have. But maybe if we let go of that need for control, we too can take the place of the Floating Man.

And just float.