PERFECT IS BORING

Oh, I love this song! I said as I reached over, turning the volume up so I could dance to the beat.  My friend and I were driving back to Vancouver from a friends wedding in the Shuswap back in September.  We all joked about how it was a mini reunion since we all attended high school together and we hadn't seen each other in years!  As we danced to the song, the sun scattered into the car through the trees as the wind blew our hair into tiny tangles in front of my face.  It was a perfect road trip moment.  That was until the song was over, Ricardo looked over at me and he said it.  The words that made me cringe at the thought of it, but he said it nonetheless.  Out loud.  So what are you doing with your life?  And being trapped in a car, there was nowhere to run so I started talking.

After the initial ahhhs and ummms and ra-ta-ta-tas, I began to talk, and I surprised even myself at times.  You see, we all get stuck in a mindset of what we think we're supposed to do.  Graduate High School.  Attend University.  Get a well paying respectable job.  Retire.  Make your bed.  After graduating high school I remember thinking, this is the start to the rest of my life and I pictured myself going to university, getting a well paid, respectable job, living in a house with a white picket fence and retiring in a nice home with freshly made beds.  That was until my life came to a halt.  My dad got very sick and in that moment I made the quick decision to drop out of university and move four hours away to take care of him before he passed away.  I always thought I would pick my life back up after, but that just didn't happen.  As people say, real life got in the way.  Five years later, I'm stuck sitting in a car, with my best friend wondering how so much time went by and I hadn't even thought about going back to university and continuing my "dreams".  But then it hit me...those weren't my dreams, they were someone else's - or more so, what everyone wants us to believe is our dreams.

In that moment I realized that perfect is boring.  We need to find what makes OUR hearts sing, OUR feet dance and OUR souls fly.  University?  Not for me.  I enjoy being creative and dancing to the beat of my own drum and while I was in Business School I felt like just another drone gliding from class to class.  The 9-5 life?  Nope, not for this gal.  Being the youngest of four, I am very stubborn and set in my ways and I've always wanted to be my own boss.  Being a wedding photographer is more than just my dream job it's a lifestyle.  It sets my heart free and gives me full permission to be creative and to be myself on a daily basis.  And as for my bed...it's not made.  The pillows are askew, the blankets are in a jumble on top and somewhere in the mess Chachi is having her afternoon all day cat nap amongst the covers.

Do yourself a favour.  Break away from what everyone else is telling you to be perfect and just do what YOU think is perfect.  Everything else is boring.

Ricardo, thank you for making me realize this for myself. xo