Picking up from last time –
I wanted to ask if I could change the answer of what stresses me out to “You. You do.” (I didn’t.)
I’m usually not mean (or at least I hope I’m not… even if I am coming off super bitter in these posts because, well… I’m super bitter)…
She asks me what I do to cope with stress. I tell her I love running. We talk about my 52 half marathons. She seemed very bothered by a lot of it – especially all the travel involved. I covered, I think, 13-ish states.
She was flabbergasted that I did so much traveling and did so much of it by myself.
Yes, how could I possibly ever travel somewhere so incredibly easy, you know, like in my own country where I speak the language and have the currency and all that, *puts on way overly exaggerated Southern Belle accent* all by my poor sweet little lonesome self?
(I’d like to be clear that I would not at all think it out of the ordinary or be scared to travel alone outside of the country either. I’m just saying, going to New Orléans, or Atlantic City, etc. is pretty freakishly low-risk travel. So the fact that someone thought that was weird was weird to me.)
I’m not 13 years old, you know? I live in a big city. I take care of myself. Nothing about my life seems too odd to me, and certainly nothing about vacations seems so off to me.
Then, instead of saving myself from her notions about me, I just dug myself in deeper. As I was trying to explain that the idea of going places didn’t scare me, I mentioned, “In 2010, once my show wrapped and my sublet was ending, I decided to just get on a plane and move to New York, because why not?”
The level of shock and disgust on her face – I can’t even!
I was trying to say, “Life is fun! I’m not afraid.” But apparently, all I did say was, “I’m too free-spirited to be able to handle any real adult things.”
She hit the whole “free-spiritedness” thing a lot with me. What my friends found hilarious about this, and please excuse me for sort of bragging about myself for a second…
When I was very angrily complaining about this to my buds, all my friends kept saying things such as, “Yes, you’re sort of a free-spirit when it comes to living… But you are one of the most responsible, driven, dedicated people I know!”
“You had a dream to work in the entertainment industry. You moved to a big city right after high school. You hustled your butt off, worked long hours, took chances and took leaps when other people were too afraid. You joined two unions, and kept getting promotions. You stuck it out when TONS of people around you fell off, gave up, and moved back home. If that doesn’t show dedication and responsibility, I don’t know what does.”
THANK YOU friends who say that. Because, seriously, right?
Yes, I am very silly, and I like to think I’m really fun. I do like to travel and I like to generally live, because not to sound cliché but we do only live once. I also do a lot of things at the last-minute because if there’s one thing I’ve learned from not only my crazy health problems but also just getting offered random last-minute jobs – sometimes away from my state of residence – I don’t ever know what tomorrow will bring!
So if I can go do something right now and it’s not going to hurt me in any way to do it… then I should get while the getting’s good, and do it right now!
I know I’m rambling a little (and I’m sorry), but do you understand how deep her brow was constantly furrowed?!
We’ll pick up with more next time.