The Norm

In my 20s I was always out doing something or being around someone’s house. It was like I was some kind of lizard tasting the outside air with my tongue. Oh how things have so changed, you are more likely to find me enjoying cosy evenings, TV or YouTube, a movie or just the Internet (which is my idea of bliss).

I started to believe I was becoming a bit of a recluse. I knew I wasn’t, I just enjoyed my own little cosy existence. I wondered if it was because I didn’t enjoy the ‘norm’ anymore, or maybe I allowed my own selfish pursuits to take over. I felt like (and still do) I was desperately trying to break out of an imaginary mould. A mould set by my parents, family, and peers. A mould of expectations, culture, norms and values passed down by flawed ancestors to a flawed individual.

How often do you take time out and do what you want to do? No expectations, no limits, just walk out the door and see what will happen. How many of you colour outside the box? Or forget the box and draw a circle.

In 2015 I joined a writing group, you would literally turn up at a coffee shop and write with strangers, in silence, for 2hrs. I did not know any of these people and it initially felt awkward. I will say this; during these periods I wrote my best pieces of work. It was definitely against the ‘norm’ for me and I really enjoyed it.

So it is 2017 (woohoo) what is against the norm for you? Our lives can be so formalised or structured especially when ‘adulting’. We get up, go to work, meet the same people at the station, come home, eat, then sleep. Even our extra activities are structured. We go to the same parties, with the same people, listening to the same old songs evoking the same old emotions. Then we go home.

So in 2017 let’s do something different each month, or if you can’t manage it every 3months, or whenever. Just really live. Xxx

A x