LIVING LIFE: A PIECE OF ADVICE

Photo Credit: https://goo.gl/images/XdLgnn

Yesterday, someone told me this.

You’re allowed to just do things for fun and according to your happiness.

He told me that in this modern society, we seem to have this attitude that we shouldn’t do something unless we’re aiming to be the best at it. If we cannot sing like Beyonce or Bon Jovi or something there’s no point in singing. If we can’t make the next big breakthrough in our life then there’s no point in looking into mechanics and engineering.

But, he told me, it took him a long time to figure out that life doesn’t have to be a race. If you want to take up the guitar when you’re a teenager or later you’re not going to master it. You’re not going to be able to play to huge concert halls, but that also shouldn’t stop you. You can study a language out of curiosity and then drop it if you want. You can just get okay at something or even be terrible at it. You can drop it for days or years and then pick it up again and it doesn’t have to be a shameful thing.

I’m really glad he told me that because today I opened my sketchpad for the first time in months and just started drawing. And it looks terrible. But I don’t really care. I don’t have the talent or patience or spacial awareness to get anywhere near good at drawing, but it’s fun. It helps me focus my mind and nobody has to see it.

And because of what he told me, I’m thinking maybe someday somehow soon I will take up the bass guitar. And I won’t worry about how well I do, or how fast I learn, or that I haven’t played an instrument since I was a little, or that I don’t have that much time to practice. I’m just gonna enjoy the experience because i'm hapy about it. Maybe I’ll try swing dancing again and take a class because I’m not the best dancer but damn if it isn’t fun.

Yeah, you don’t have to be good at those things. It’s not a requirement at all. Maybe that seems obvious but it had never been an impact to me before. You’re allowed to just enjoy what you’re doing. For me, that feels like a life changing revelation. I don’t have to be good at something to like it. I don’t have to put all of my effort into everything I do. It’s kind of amazing."