By AJ Mun
Staff Writer
There comes a time in everyone’s life when you face the realization that you’re not a kid anymore, and you haven’t been for a while. At that moment, two choices present themselves to you. You can either give into the little things in life that may not be the most responsible choice, but they make you happy, or you could live life like how society tells you to, and fear the public’s opinions.
Many people choose society over self, and while there is no right or wrong answer, I feel as though they lose a side of themself that is precious and worth cherishing.
As a child, you have no thoughts about how something would make you look to others, you just gave in to what made you the happiest in that moment. Yet as adults, we constantly concern ourselves with what goes on in the minds of others when that is just one of a million things that is out of our control. So why should we care so much?
Take the movie “The Notebook” for example. The character Allie lives with extreme pressure of who she’s supposed to be and how she is supposed to live. When she believes that Noah, her love interest from her younger years, has stopped writing because her mother had intercepted the letters, she proceeds with the life that she believes she was supposed to live.
After marrying another and learning to be happy with the life that made her parents happy, she realizes her heart always belonged to Noah and she becomes immensely happier when reconnecting with him all those years later.
No matter what her parents thought, Allie finds her way back to the love of her life. Now I’m not saying nourishing your inner child only relates to love stories or chick flics, despite it being one of my favorite movies, what I mean is that finding her way back to what her heart truly wanted had made her the happiest she had ever been.
Now imagine that you are both Allie and her mother. When you restrict yourself from things that make you truly happy, you self sabotage like how Allies mother sabotaged her. You suffocate a part of yourself and have to learn to be happy with where you are or who you think that you are supposed to be. The problem with that result is that happiness is not something that should have to be learned, it's natural.
At the risk of sounding corny, the answers can always be found inside of you, you just have to know where to look for them. Give into the path that feels the most right for you, and the happiness will follow.
Changing perspectives, some of the most intolerable people are those who believe that another person’s happiness, interests or hobbies, make them any less of a person because of what they personally value. Let’s get one thing clear: Not one person truly cares what you do but you. Those who do tell you that they care are really just suffering on the inside and are most likely jealous that you can feel free and content with the things that you love, without fear of perceptions or judgement.
That being said, go on adventures, wear the bright colors, slap on as much makeup as you want. Nourish that inner child.
Many people believe that as you grow up, the colors of the world begin to fade and they crave that bright warmth that they felt when they were a kid. The reason the world felt so bright was because you had never stopped to think about how other people judged you for viewing the world through your own eyes.
Money comes back but time doesn’t. Live life spontaneously and do what makes you feel the most yourself. If that means you want to wear neon orange to the office then so be it. It may not be what I want to wear, but who cares? At the end of the day life is too short and you’ll never regret doing what made you happy or feel good.
Nourish little you and you’ll see the color come back little by little. Live freely and buy the concert tickets, just make sure you can pay your rent this month too. After all, landlords need to budget for their inner child too.
