01.15.13

The Same Game.

This may seem strange, and maybe it wasn't just me, but I hated the game Duck Duck Goose.

That game, when I first played it, back when I was five, taught me to be a leader. Not a follower. 

Back in daycare, when the cool kids played that game, it was as though us little ducklings never existed. 

I'd sit in that dumbass circle, waiting to be goose. And for what? So I could chase someone around in a circle?

My sippy cup was even too sophisticated for that shit.

I refused to play. And then I became the outsider, looking in. Watching all of these ignorant children follow each other around in circles. 

I had an issue with lines too. One of us had to go to the bathroom, so therefore we all needed to get into a single file line and go? Made no sense to me whatsoever. I was old enough to know where to go, how to undo my pants, and how to wipe my ass. So why did I need my whole kindergarten class to help me out?

And what was worse was the fact that every single kid in the class actually fought to be the "leader" of the line. As though that made them any less of a follower. 

And you always had that one kid in every class who stuck himself right in the middle, who walked slow as all hell, and held up the back end of the line. Every three seconds the front of the line would have to stop and wait for this kid. The back end of the line was moaning and groaning about how much of a slow ass this kid was being, and the kid? He/she was picking at fingernails, playing with clothes, or just staring off into space, unaware of anything going on. But we all followed anyway. Because that is how we were conditioned to behave.

We were taught from day one that following someone else is how the world worked. 

From Barbie dolls to fad dieting, someone is following something.

Vicious cycle, this line we've ringed our world with. We follow television, news, radio, magazines, billboards, our parents, our teachers, our government. 

Do we even own a single thought in our heads anymore?

Resolution #015: Follow nothing. Don't give someone else the credit for you. You aren't made in a factory, you are not plastic, and you were not made in China. (Unless you were born there, then I guess you kind of were.) You are not a product of anything except what you allow yourself to be. Do not let your manufacturer be anyone else but you. Be original. Be someone separate from everyone else. Make your own statement.