You're Doing Just Fine
prose & poetry
from a past that was never present
Take a shower, wash off the day. Drink a glass of water. Make the room dark. Lie down and close your eyes. Notice the silence. Notice your heart. Still beating. Still fighting. You made it, after all. You made it, another day. And you can make it one more.
You’re doing just fine.
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Named after the poem that has been shared over 1 million times on Tumblr, quoted by celebrities and brands like Nike and Kim Kardashian, this is the third book from young author and songwriter Charlotte Eriksson. Since the release of You're Doing Just Fine, the message behind the title has grown into a global community of hopeful messages, hashtags and mental health support forums. "I want the book to feel like a warm hug during cold nights; like a 3a.m. conversation with your best friend, just a hand reached out saying you're not alone, you're doing fine."
The book is a collection of prose and poetry with the themes of hope, healing, growing up, loneliness, and learning how to bloom in solitude. An exploration of the life of a young seeker with an aching heart, urged by a wanderlust that leads and directs, and the simple task of learning how to live with yourself.
Quotes and writings from the You're Doing Just Fine has been widely shared and embraced by like-minded communities such as To Write Love On Her Arms, The Artidote, Wordporn and The Good Quote, wracking up hundreds of thousands of likes, shares and comments on each post.
Writings and poems from the book has since the release been published on Thought Catalog, Rebelle Society and Bella Grace Magazine.
"Charlotte knows her reader so well
that it feels like she's writing my very own journal."
You can get yourself a small room in a new city where no one knows your name
just yet
but they will,
for they will see you walking quietly through the market on Sunday mornings,
and sitting at the cafe on Tuesdays
scribbling thoughts in that worn out notebook,
or in the library between the shelves of different worlds, and late on Friday evenings
you will sit peacefully in the corner of the pub
by yourself
and you will be okay with that.
Some nights beautiful boys will buy you drinks and ask your name
and you will smile, but be okay with walking home alone
because one day someone will know you
without asking your name
and that’s the person that matters.
So wait a few years,
until you can get yourself a small room in a new city where no one knows your name
just yet
but they will
and there will be an older lady
knocking at your door
saying hi and you’re very welcome,
and you can have a garden
where only flowers grow, with no thorns, that you plant yourself,
and on sunny mornings in April
you can sit and watch them bloom
a little more each day,
just like you do,
bloom a little more
each day.
And on crisp winter mornings in January you can drink coffee in the cold
on your own front porch
and the town is empty
but full
of other things
like space.
And hope.
And purity.
Wait a few years,
when things are clearer, and you will go on well. Just hold on
and wait.
You will be okay.
Find my books and quotes on Goodreads
“You can start anew at any given moment. Life is just the passage of time and it’s up to you to pass it as you please.”
"It was quite a beautiful thing, the way we simply just came to be. With no effort or trying, just slowly finding each other’s hands in the dark. No chains or promises, just a simple sign of hope
that things will go on and get better."
Never apologise for how you live your life,
or not live your life.
Never apologise for your loneliness
or stubbornness
or will to survive,
and never soak in the words of someone who in any way belittles you.
People put other people down because they themselves are not certain enough
if they, in fact,
are standing themselves.
“You’re going to make something wonderful of yourself. I promise. You’re doing just fine.”
My Story
I'm messy and I'm organized and I'm still trying to piece my own self together. I can't sleep at night because how could I close my eyes when there's a whole world out there, calling my name, waiting to be explored. I love intelligent conversations while laying on empty streets at 5am in the morning, and I love watching the sun rise over a world that is still asleep. I make mistakes and I mess up a lot, but I'm trying to learn how to be okay with that. Some days I couldn't care less about what all of you think about my art because this is my life and all I have. But then there are days when all I want is to be beautiful and good enough and someone to count on. Someone to like and love and believe in. I just really want to mean something to someone.
I believe in the future, for I have seen yesterday and I'm still alive. I laugh a lot and I believe in the beauty in small things. Like the coffee in the morning with someone you love, road-trips to nowhere and oceans. I love people who are curious and careless, because I want to be curious and careless and even though I'm mostly guarded, mostly shy, what I really want is to hug every single person I meet and ask them a thousand questions about their definition of a life lived well and if they've ever been in love and how they could go on when that love disappeared, because I am struggling. People fascinate me because I can't seem to understand them, and they rarely understand me. The way they can live and breathe and simply be, when I can't even look myself in the mirror without questioning every line, every expression and people’s perception. I remember every single word from conversations and I have a whole box of unsent letters to myself and every person I've ever met.
When I was 18 I moved all on my own from my home in Sweden to London to become the person I wanted to be, and create a life that made me excited to wake up in the morning. After a year in solitude with my mind and my music, I packed light and spent a year homeless on the road, dedicating my life to my art and music, determined to tell the world about it. I went everywhere and nowhere. Spent nights on the concrete, had beautiful conversations with strangers and walked foreign streets every day. I learned how to build my home in my music and my art. When I sing or write, I'm not scared anymore. I just want to mean something to someone because every person I meet means the world to me and I just wish to belong. I just wish to be me and be loved for that. I believe that if you want something bad enough, you can always find a way to get it. I love challenges because I'm here to prove myself and other people wrong.
I still don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way, and I'm giving my life to this journey. My life is this journey.
I wanted to turn my life into art, my very existence into a poem.
It might not always be easy, but it will always be beautiful.