On Saturday, I picked my mother up from the airport. I hadn’t seen her since she moved me into my dorm: my stuff was thrown all around the room, boxes needed to be unpacked, and clothes desperately needed to be washed after a summer of storage. We had tickets to see Madonna — a favorite of ours — and we were completely stoked to hear the Material Girl in real life.
But, nothing ever goes as perfectly as planned, right?
Not a single thing fell into place in the plan we had meticulously drawn up in the weeks prior, which was scheduled to the minute, but it ended up great regardless. Madonna canceled all of her shows in Boston. Not rescheduled — canceled. So, now what?
These tickets were the reason I didn’t go home for Thanksgiving! But I’ve come to find that some days, life can be really magical: the ocean can be a different shade of blue than you’re used to, you can find a backup plan that fills your days with more excitement than you could have been expecting, you could discover some of the best Thai food you’ve ever had, you could even end up at a sing-a-long for The Sound of Music, laughing while an entire theater of women dressed as nuns and children dressed as deer break out party poppers for the moment Maria confesses her love for Captain Von Trapp.
Take a break!! Let life happen!! If you don’t allow yourself to have fun and go with the flow for a second or two you’ll never know what could have been. Take Ferris Bueller’s advice to heart — “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around every once in a while, you could miss it.” Let’s be honest, you don’t want to be the person who goes through life without a little bit of chaos.
When life gives you lemons, take a risk. End up in a theater 30 minutes outside of the city with an open mind, don’t be afraid to embrace the weirdness of life, and sing at the top of your lungs.
I can’t fully recommend realizing that you are Maria (see also: “flibbertigibbet”), but I can vouch for screaming “Vogue” with your mom in your dorm room and making a concert of your own.
Spend an hour or two perusing art museums. Stare at abstract paintings and know you don’t have a clue what they mean, but that you know you like the way they make you feel. Take selfies with your friends or by yourself: document life as it happens.
Go on runs down streets that you’ve never seen before and may never see again.
Go to punk rock shows… or to indie shows… or to alt-rock shows… or to folk shows.
Pretend you know the words to an opening act you’ve never, EVER, heard of before. Dance the way you do in your bedroom when the music becomes the soundtrack to your life — suddenly, you’re in the opening “getting ready for the day” scene of every 80s or 90s (even early 2000s) movie ever.
I mean… why not?
There’s a hot chance you’ll never have to see the strangers who shoot you a judgemental side-eye ever again. It’s one glance, and then they’re gone! I stopped letting people rain on my parade a while ago and, honestly, I couldn’t recommend it more. It’s so much more fun that way.
However, I won’t lie; tomorrow I will be laying on the floor of my messy dorm room, procrastinating cleaning up, hoping that the snow will continue to fall.
Sometimes you’ve just got to ramble.
Sometimes you’ve just got to be real.
I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving! Don’t be afraid to look the chaos of life in the eye and say: “Okay, let’s do this!”
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