I hadn't been feeling well all week, but began recovering yesterday, fortunately. After debating whether or not to see a band perform with my parents, I opted to go - to get out of the house and see a fun band perform that I had only seen once previously.
Things were going pretty well all night. The band was highly entertaining. The folks and I people-watched, especially the drunkards dancing, and as always, that was both an amusing and facepalm-inducing experience.
For the band's last song, they played the Beastie Boys' classic, "You Gotta Fight For Your Right to Party!" Many women went up to the dance-floor to, well, dance. Most of the guys stood back and just observed. Toward the end of the song, some 45ish-year old woman then approached me and asked me to dance. First off, I'm not much of a dancer. Secondly, I still wasn't 100% healthy, so I felt like dancing like a sloth feels like sprinting. Thirdly, I have a girlfriend, so while it's not against any law, I don't feel particularly right about dancing with women under 50. Fourthly, I was with my parents, so I was kind of there to spend time with them. So, I smiled and politely declined her offer once, and then twice, and then she kind of grabbed my left arm and forced me to go up with her. Fortunately, the song really isn't as much a "dancing" song as it's a jump-and-act-stupid song, and I made sure to carry my drink with me just in case she had any crazy idea of slow dancing to a Beastie Boys tune.
After the song was over and my awkward moment finally ceased, the lady said to me, "You gotta live a little. Come on - live a little." Yeah, she may have been hammered, but I really didn't care for that comment. But, as I typically do, I just laughed, shrugged my shoulders, and walked back over to my folks to enlighten them on the series of events that just unfolded.
The quote reminded me of an encounter I had with an old friend of mine probably close to 10 years ago. This guy and I had been great friends our senior year of high school and our first year or two of college. But one day, he just seemingly disappeared. He stopped answering my calls. I had thought the guy may have gotten into some kind of trouble, but after a while, finally gave up in trying to find out what the deal was. We then bumped into one another at a gas station a couple years later and he followed me back to my place of residence, where he wound up staying all night, getting drunk and giving me lectures.
After he did a couple shots, he finally said to me, "Do you want to know why I stopped answering your calls and stopped hanging out with you?"
Right then, a knot formed at the pit of my stomach and I was ambivalent on how to answer the question. I wound up saying yes, and he gave me a very lengthy lecture on how I wasn't living life and he wanted to live life. Oddly enough, I was on the verge of earning two Associate's degrees and heading to a 4-year university for my Bachelor's, while he had been traveling the country, doing drugs, and getting started back up with school again - just as he had been doing 2-3 years earlier.
I guess it just bothers me to hear others tell me, "Live a little," because they're insinuating, based on what little they know, that I don't "live life," even though if one takes that literally, everyone alive would technically be living life. If we take the phrase figuratively, however, it becomes quite subjective. Different people live life in different ways. I don't see how this makes it so one person can be seen as living life and another can not be seen in such a manner. My old friend lived life by partying all the time, doing drugs, getting himself into trouble, and traveling. That's fine, but that's not how I wanted to live my life. I was focused on school first and foremost, would party some weekends, play video games with friends, travel some, etc. I don't think anyone is justified in claiming that a person isn't "living life" if that person is simply doing what he or she enjoys doing. If a woman reads a book while soaking in hot bath water on a Saturday night, does this mean she's not "living life?" If a man plays a computer game with several friends via the Internet on a Friday night, does this mean he's not "living life?" Every single person experiences life a little bit differently than one another. I think, instead of being critical about others' hobbies and interests, we should simply observe and learn. For while a particular hobby or interest may be of little intrigue to us at first, if we keep an open-mind about it, we may surprise ourselves with the end result.
Things were going pretty well all night. The band was highly entertaining. The folks and I people-watched, especially the drunkards dancing, and as always, that was both an amusing and facepalm-inducing experience.
For the band's last song, they played the Beastie Boys' classic, "You Gotta Fight For Your Right to Party!" Many women went up to the dance-floor to, well, dance. Most of the guys stood back and just observed. Toward the end of the song, some 45ish-year old woman then approached me and asked me to dance. First off, I'm not much of a dancer. Secondly, I still wasn't 100% healthy, so I felt like dancing like a sloth feels like sprinting. Thirdly, I have a girlfriend, so while it's not against any law, I don't feel particularly right about dancing with women under 50. Fourthly, I was with my parents, so I was kind of there to spend time with them. So, I smiled and politely declined her offer once, and then twice, and then she kind of grabbed my left arm and forced me to go up with her. Fortunately, the song really isn't as much a "dancing" song as it's a jump-and-act-stupid song, and I made sure to carry my drink with me just in case she had any crazy idea of slow dancing to a Beastie Boys tune.
After the song was over and my awkward moment finally ceased, the lady said to me, "You gotta live a little. Come on - live a little." Yeah, she may have been hammered, but I really didn't care for that comment. But, as I typically do, I just laughed, shrugged my shoulders, and walked back over to my folks to enlighten them on the series of events that just unfolded.
The quote reminded me of an encounter I had with an old friend of mine probably close to 10 years ago. This guy and I had been great friends our senior year of high school and our first year or two of college. But one day, he just seemingly disappeared. He stopped answering my calls. I had thought the guy may have gotten into some kind of trouble, but after a while, finally gave up in trying to find out what the deal was. We then bumped into one another at a gas station a couple years later and he followed me back to my place of residence, where he wound up staying all night, getting drunk and giving me lectures.
After he did a couple shots, he finally said to me, "Do you want to know why I stopped answering your calls and stopped hanging out with you?"
Right then, a knot formed at the pit of my stomach and I was ambivalent on how to answer the question. I wound up saying yes, and he gave me a very lengthy lecture on how I wasn't living life and he wanted to live life. Oddly enough, I was on the verge of earning two Associate's degrees and heading to a 4-year university for my Bachelor's, while he had been traveling the country, doing drugs, and getting started back up with school again - just as he had been doing 2-3 years earlier.
I guess it just bothers me to hear others tell me, "Live a little," because they're insinuating, based on what little they know, that I don't "live life," even though if one takes that literally, everyone alive would technically be living life. If we take the phrase figuratively, however, it becomes quite subjective. Different people live life in different ways. I don't see how this makes it so one person can be seen as living life and another can not be seen in such a manner. My old friend lived life by partying all the time, doing drugs, getting himself into trouble, and traveling. That's fine, but that's not how I wanted to live my life. I was focused on school first and foremost, would party some weekends, play video games with friends, travel some, etc. I don't think anyone is justified in claiming that a person isn't "living life" if that person is simply doing what he or she enjoys doing. If a woman reads a book while soaking in hot bath water on a Saturday night, does this mean she's not "living life?" If a man plays a computer game with several friends via the Internet on a Friday night, does this mean he's not "living life?" Every single person experiences life a little bit differently than one another. I think, instead of being critical about others' hobbies and interests, we should simply observe and learn. For while a particular hobby or interest may be of little intrigue to us at first, if we keep an open-mind about it, we may surprise ourselves with the end result.
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