don't follow the yellow brick road

Life is good-brutal-but good. It's probably obvious, but I definitely don't have my life together in any sort of way. I kind of have no idea what I'm doing with my life; not to suggest that I have no direction in life nor do I plan to live in my parents basement for the rest of my life, I definitely have purpose and drive in life, but life is just kind of messy. 

You see, at some point in my life I decided that the yellow brick road was too crowded, practically suffocating with streams of people marching along, heads down and probably looking at their iPhone and when you tried to talk to them they'd just nod and go "uh huh" when really they weren't listening at all. They tell you that as long as you stay on the yellow brick road you'll never get lost and everything will work out great. Ya know? Comfy office job with a nice paying salary, a nice warm home to go to, I guess that's where all those people on the yellow brick road were trying to get to, or so I'm told. 

But yellow is boring, the road was too damn crowded and honestly how was I expected to stay on the yellow brick road when it was surrounded with fields of wildflowers to run in, majestic mountain peaks rising up in the distant just begging to be climbed. I'm sorry but I honestly don't see how anyone ever expected me to stay on the yellow brick road. 

So that's how life got messy, I guess. I wandered a little, scraped up my knees, got lost, climbed some mountains, danced in the rain, chased butterflies through fields of wildflowers. My legs are covered in scars from the densely wooded forest I hiked through, scraped up from the rocky slopes I slid on. 

That's the thing about life off of the yellow brick road, it may not be very crowded, it may be ten times more beautiful, but it's rugged. There's no trodden paths to walk on, no signs pointing you in the right direction, it's wild and dangerous but I'd say it's a million times better than life on the yellow brick road. But that's just me, and I'm one in seven billion. 

I'm just one free spirited girl in a world that thinks it can tell me how I should live my life (how dare they, right?). I'm just one unpopular opinion. I'm just one of the seven billion painfully beautiful and imperfect human beings on this rotating marble we call home. 

I. Am. Imperfect. I'm a mess. I cry a lot. I feel everything a little too deeply. I have a shopping addiction. I'm too sarcastic for my own good. I'm wild beyond the point of being tamed. I'm a free spirit and I push people away for the sake of feeling free. I somehow only know how to write in run-on sentences. I'm naive. I'm a wanderer. I'm covered in scars from all the times I fell off my bike or slipped while hiking. I'm imperfect, I'm flawed, I'm a little shattered but I'm human, I'm me and there's no one else I'd rather be. 

I've never been the one to do what everyone else is doing unless I'm a fan of what everyone else is doing then I might do it too. Sometimes it frustrates me how DIFFERENT I feel from everyone else. Sometimes I get lost and just when there's no signs pointing me exactly where I want to go. Sometimes I just wonder if I'd stayed on the yellow brick road if life wouldn't feel like such a mess.  

But then I remember how great life is off the yellow brick road and FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY LIFE IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL IT HURTS. It's hard, it's exhausting, it takes the breath out of me on a daily basis. But my soul is aching because of how awesomely wonderful life is. 

I love this life. I really, truly do. I constantly have to remind myself to be patient with life and enjoy the moment, because man I've got a long long time to live and a whole lot of hope. 

I believe in being authentic. So no matter what the world tells you, just be YOURSELF. Be a thousand percent real as hell. Blow the world away with your authenticity even if you knock them dead. Wear your nerdy t-shirts, rock those holy jeans, laugh until your abs hurt even if you hate your laugh, cry if you wanna cry, dance down the isle of the grocery store, sing at the top of your lungs, give the world all you've got and don't hold back. 

I don't care what career makes more money, I only care about what makes my heart sing. I don't care if you tell me I'll be poor for the rest of my life, at least I'll be living the hell out of life. 

Please just promise me that no matter what, you'll be true to who you are. If you want to go dance in the wildflowers, you go dance in the wildflowers. Climb the mountain even if everyone calls you crazy. Be you, be imperfect, be crazy, be weird. On the brick road or off the brick road, just promise me you'll follow your heart and let your soul soar.

Darling, don't follow the yellow brick road.