What lie do you want to live?

I watched Sabrina the other night. It’s was the 1995 version with Harrison Ford. The old one with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn is much better, but sometimes you deliberately do things that might seem out of character (like watching a remake when you know the original is way better) just to see what happens.

The movie is so unremarkable that it was hard finding a picture that captured the essence of the plot.So I settled for this because of the bikes. I love bikes.

I’ve been watching a lot of romantic films lately. I don’t know what that tells you about me. I think maybe I’m looking for answers. What the question is I’m not quite sure though. I think I’m searching for that too.

Even though this version of Sabrina is pretty forgettable, one part of it stuck with me.

It was when Linus Larrabee (played by Harrison Ford) confesses his true love for Sabrina (played by Julia Ormond). He explains that his love for her started as a lie, which grew into a dream, and now he was standing there hoping against hope for the dream to turn into reality.

I remember when I was a kid and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I would tell them all sorts of things. I tried to be consistent, but to be honest I had no clue what I wanted to be.

I quickly learned that wasn’t an appropriate answer.

So I started to get creative.

I told them I wanted to become an archaeologist (after having watched Indiana Jones). I told them I wanted to become a writer (I love books). I told them I wanted to become a journalist (the more respectable version of a writer). I told them I wanted to become a lawyer (I blame Ally McBeal).

Now at the time I didn’t think of these stories as lies. But looking back I see that they were.

As we get older we’re told to be reasonable. To only take calculated risks. To not live with our heads in the clouds anymore. And I guess we’re told these things with the best of intentions. But why aren’t we allowed to be dreamers anymore?

It happened gradually, but the result was not to be mistaken: Playing pretend – or lying – became something you weren’t supposed to do anymore.

As an adult it’s expected that you have it all figured out – or at least pretend that you do. Somehow that lie is still accepted.

I don’t know what I want my life to become. I don’t know what I want to achieve. But maybe I can start with just telling myself a few lies. Just to see how they match the color of my eyes. And maybe one of these lies will stand out. I’ll think about it more than the others, imagining it in more and more details. Until it’s no longer a lie, but a dream – a goal.

Sometimes it’s necessary to deliberately tell yourself something that you know is not true, just to see how it fits. How else do you grow?

I don’t know if that’s how you’re supposed to do it.

I don’t even know who the lie is for – the one you’re telling it to? Or yourself? I suspect the latter.

So ok.

For the next week I will live a lie. Why not?

It shouldn’t feel too different from what I’m doing now.

If you could play pretend and live a lie - what would your lie be?

Advice for when you are lost in life

It’s been a while. Sorry. Life just always seems to get in the way of actually posting my thoughts here. Plus I think to myself, who evens cares?

But whatever. So I’ll talk into a void. I’ll rant. I’ll whisper. On rare occasions I’ll even scream.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking this summer. I’ve been trying to find a purpose now that I’m no longer a student but a ‘real’ and ‘proper’ adult.

And my use of those quote thingies merit the use of this gif:

What can I say, I’m a sucker for socially handicapped angels in trenchcoats.

I’d love to say I’ve found the answers. That I know what the purpose of my life is to be.

I haven’t.

Apparently these things take time.

But I will tell you what I’ve done and maybe you’ll find that helpful too.

Listen to yourself

That little voice in your head that keeps blabbering on about how tired you are, and how life would be better if you were better, and how you haven’t gotten far at all?

You need to pay attention to it.

I know it’s a lot more comfortable to just sit on the internet and browse or to lean back and watch Netflix. I don’t want to seem like a saint here. In the past month I’ve seen the entire series of Breakout Kings (it’s not even that good – I just couldn’t stop), the first season of Modern Family (this is actually really good though), countless movies (mostly romantic comedies or action movies I’ve seen before and love), and then an assortment of episodes of series I started but didn’t have the attention span to finish (this include shows I know are great but just didn’t struck a chord – The Wire and Orange is the New Black).

(geees - I watch a lot of shows)

Anyway.

You can’t ignore that voice forever. You might as well just pay attention to it and listen to what it has to say.

Be kind to yourself

This is an important one. Because that voice in your head? If it’s anything like the voice in my head, then it’s a fucking manipulative bitch. My voice is always disappointed in me, and nothing I do is ever good enough. It’s actually horrible to be in my head sometimes.

And that is why you have to be kind to yourself.

I like to do a simple test to see if what I’m filling my head with lives up to the criteria of being kind to myself: The things that are going through my head – would I talk like that to any of my friends?

Usually the answer is no, and then I know that I’m being too hard on myself.

Maybe the voices in your head are nice. My aren’t. Allow me to demonstrate:

“Oh god, so you’re writing another blogpost – what exactly are you hoping to achieve? Like anybody will read it. Or worse – someone you know will read it and fucking ridicule you. Or pity you. Because you are pathetic. Why even try to give advice? You don’t even know. So why are you acting like you got your shit together? Wouldn’t it be more productive to go home and vacuum? Which you btw haven’t done for like 3 weeks.”

And so it goes. Relentlessly. Constantly.

I would never talk to a friend like that. I would never allow any of my friends to talk to me in that manner either. It’s counterproductive and just plain mean.

And so, whenever I become conscious of my thoughts turning negative, I remind myself that it’s not ok to talk to myself like that. It’s not that I start to argue about the validity of the claims of my thoughts. They may very well be true (they certainly feel like they are sometimes). But regardless – I don’t have to listen to assholes talking to me. Even when that asshole is me.

So I stop . Take a deep breath. And tell myself to be kind to myself.

Now, being kind to oneself is not a free pass to do whatever you please. You still need to not watch Netflix all the time. You still need to get up early and get to work. You still can’t eat icecream for dinner (aaaahh who am I kidding – you can always eat icecream for dinner).

You still need to do all the boring adult stuff that comes with having adult responsibilities.

You just have to be kind to yourself while doing it.

Don’t be too hard on yourself when you fail. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try again (and these lines are why this song [happy as is it] sometimes brings me to tears).

Talk until you’re blue in the face

What also helps me to squash my evil inner monologue of dreadful things is to voice these stupid thoughts to other people. Sometimes your inner voice will be very persistent in claiming certain things as truth. Sometimes it will even sound reasonable. Maybe it’s telling you that you’re underachieving because now that you’ve got a full time job, you’re not pursuing your other interests. I voiced this thought to my sister and she thought I was being too hard on myself. I’ve got a 50-60 hour work week. It’s a demanding job. And I do still pursue other interests, she pointed out. I am doing regular exercise (3-4 times a week) in order to get in shape for a race I signed up for. I am seeing my friends. My family. Heck I even read a book for fun once in a while.

So this thing that my inner voice told me that at the time seemed to be the truth, turned out not to be.

Sometimes you have to talk to other people about what you think. And then listen to how they respond.

Which brings me to the next point.

Listen to others

Listen to what people tell you. Don’t necessarily treat their version of reality as the correct one, but at least hear them out.

But more than that – try to ask them the question you yourself are wrestling with and learn how they dealt with them.

You can do this with all sorts of people – it doesn’t have to be your closest friends.

I’ve talked a lot with my sister about these feelings of inadequacies I’ve had. Just voicing them out loud made most of them appear silly.

I’ve talked to my friends of about feeling lost in life ever since I graduated. I asked them about whether they ever felt the same and how they dealt with it. And I found that most of them are still dealing with it. Every day. Trying to figure out their own purpose. And even though they didn’t have any answers it helped me. Just knowing I wasn’t alone is a comfort.

I’ve talked to colleagues about making ends meet and still finding time for other activities in life than work. They struggle as well. What seems to be working for them is to compartmentalize their life. It’s a skill I haven’t learned yet and to be honest I don’t know if I want to.

Don’t give up

This is where I’m at now. I’ve listened. I’m being kind. I’ve talked. And I’ve listened some more. I still haven’t figured out what my purpose is. But at least right now, I feel like I’m growing.

I don’t know what else to tell you.

So just, keep on rocking on. And let me know in the comments if you have any other tips for how to get 'unlost'.

On a final note - Alice in Wonderland is just filled with wonderful quotes. The dialogue between Alice and the Cheshire Cat below helped me through some rough patches.

If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. And there's some strange comfort in that.

So keep walking on the road of life. Keep on being kind to yourself and to others. And keep on listening and looking at the world in wonder until you find a road you like more than the one you are on.

Forget Your Troubles, mkay?

I’ve decided that my mood is random as fuck. Today I woke up angry at the world, hating everything in it, including myself. I thought I’d feel better after I got my morning exercise done. I didn’t. I thought I’d feel better after the shower. I didn’t. I thought I’d feel better after breakfast. I didn’t.

At this point I contemplated drinking coffee with no milk in it just because I wanted to make myself suffer.* The twisted logic was that since I was angry at the world, I might as well have something proper to be upset about.

I chickened out though and didn’t do it. Even in my hatred of the world I recognized that it would not make sense to add to the suckiness of it all by drinking unpleasant things.

I don’t know how, but sometime during the day, my mood got better. It seemed to happen without me noticing?

It’s like I’m a three year old kid crying because I just dropped my icecream cone. Show me a pretty picture or give me a swing-around and I’ll forget it all.

Is it really that easy?

I really love this version of the song. Who doesn't love a high-top-hat wearing House singing a song?

It reminds me of how in a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Ford explains that the secret to flying is to simply forget that you are falling. The hard part is to do that while you are hurling towards the earth at great speed.

Is the secret to happiness simply to forget to be sad?

It sounds too simple.

I have this tendency to overthink everything, though, so who knows.

I’ve always liked the Vlogbrothers and their slogan: Don’t Forget To Be Awesome. It kind of goes in the same vein of how your default state is positive. We were always meant to be awesome. Sometimes we just forget.

And rather than obsess about it, thinking of how you need to be a better version of yourself, and how you need to fix all your problems, maybe you just need to chill the fuck out?

I know I do.

Namaste motherfuckers.

*To those of you who prefer your coffee black – I mean no disrespect. I can appreciate that we don’t all like the same things. I just absolutely hate coffee with no milk in it. It’s too bitter and it just doesn’t sit well in my stomach. And it stains your teeth more than if you add milk. Maybe one day I’ll be adult enough to actually enjoy a cup of steaming black tar, but for now I prefer it with milk. 

Thoughts You Have As a Newly Minted Fulltime Adult (Riiight?)

I can’t seem to focus on anything.

I don’t even know how I’m feeling. I can’t sense my thoughts.

And the above doesn’t really make any sense. I know damn well how I’m feeling. I just can’t seem to connect these feelings with any sort of cohesive thought.

So for now I won’t even try.

I read a book yesterday. I finished it in one setting. It wasn’t even all that good, but I couldn’t be bothered to get up, so I thought, why not?

I don’t know how I feel about the book. It was alright, I guess. The main character was tired of being manipulated by everyone and had a general distrust of everyone. Parents – they fuck you up. But apart from that she was still a decent human being, believing in the goodness of others, even though it seemed she didn’t feel like she deserved any kindness herself.

After I finished the book I saw the newest episode of Orphan Black which was awesome as always. I t was a quiet episode where nothing much happened plotwise, but you got a sense of how the pieces were being moved across the board to create a set up for something bigger.

I feel like my life is on hold. No one is moving the pieces of my life around. No one is setting the stage for greater things to come.

Anyway. After watching Orphan Black, I got caught up on Game of Thrones. Got to watch four episodes in a row and that’s always fun times. People were betrayed. Some died. Some had sex. No graphic nudity though.

And after that I watched Iron Man. I really just love watching RDJ as Tony Stark. It seems like it was the character he was born to play.

After that I tried to read some more, but seeing as it was past 3 AM, and the book I was reading was boring as fuck, I just decided to say fuck it and go to sleep.

I just feel discontent. Which is bullshit because I have it all, but that doesn’t seem to make a difference to my brain.

I’m not being very kind to myself.

It always feels like I only have two settings: Full warp-speed ahead and fuck I’m a slug.

It worked alright when I was in school, because I always had so much shit to do so I never really fell into the slug state for long. I had a stuff to do to pull me out of my vegetative state.

But I don’t anymore. I have a wonderful job and an apartment and friends. But I suck at actually calling friends. Whenever I get a chance to be alone I grab it and cherish it. I rarely write people asking them to hang out. I just don’t do it. I don’t know why though.

I don’t feel at ease. I feel like I should be more.

I think it’s probably natural to feel this way? I mean, I’ve had this thing call school fill my every waking moment for the last 2½ years. Now that I don’t have that I feel empty.

I knew on some level I’d feel this way too. I guess I just didn’t know I’d feel it for this long?

I somehow always expect myself to be less affected by shit that happens. I’m always impatient. Always expecting myself to be able to absorb the changes quicker.

I don’t feel like I’m not a student anymore. I’m still just as lost. Still just stumbling through life. Still have a horrible haircut.

But I don’t get to call myself a student anymore.

And while I’ve celebrated my passing into the full-time working life, I don’t think I’ve actually mourned the death of one of my most cherished identities; I’m no longer a student at ITU. I don’t get to be that girl anymore.

Instead I get to be the woman who landed the job in one of the best companies in Denmark.

But where the fuck do I go from here?

I’ve never been good at planning ahead. I like goals. Every goal I have ever set, I have achieved.

But how does one excel at being a working woman? What is the next logical step here? Where the fuck am I headed?

I’ve been trying to not think about this too much. I’ve been telling myself that it’s the journey and not the destination that matters. But if I don’t even have an idea of what the destination is, how am I supposed to get up every morning and enjoy the journey?

This past month I’ve been drifting. And to drift for one month is not that bad. I’ve been doing my duties at my job, but if I’m being perfectly honest, I haven’t given it all I got. I’ve done what I had to, to scrape by unnoticed, but not much more. And that’s not good enough. That’s not who I am.

I’m the one who gets the job done. I’m the one you can count on to deliver those reports you need, that slidedeck, that fucking email. I get shit done. And you might not know the extent of my capabilities. You simply know that when I get a task, I get the job done. I don’t ask too many questions, I don’t try to re-organize and control every single detail. I simply present my findings.

My job is not to offer solutions. My job is to find the root causes of the problems and present my findings.

I like that job. It’s a good job.

I don’t feel Im doing a particularly good job of it right now, though.

I miss my past.

I want to go back.

And it’s so freaking unfair that you can’t.

My roommate from the university I went to in the states just texted me a pic from our first shopping trip together. I miss those days. I miss being that girl who attended university in the states and lived with three Norwegians. I miss going on road trips. I miss feeling like I was living a dream.

I’ll be headed back to the states in the fall for a vacation. I need something more to look forward to than just my next vacation. But what?

I don’t know. I don’t know.

I feel less jittery now. More focused. Not more happy. Maybe even on the contrary?

But life isn’t about being happy. It’s about being whole.

Patterns - The Stories we Tell Ourselves

I've repeated some patterns to death these last 7 years. There's a reason I hardly talk about guys on this blog. It's because it's always the same story. I meet a guy I like. I tell myself that it's nothing. He shows interest in me too and then I get hurt because I overthink everything. This happens once in a year or maybe less.

I just returned after a break and read the above paragraph. I started to delete it because it's so obviously wrong but I think I'll let it be.

Let me point out all the ways that first paragraph is wrong.

I am not the fucking reason why my relations to men never work out. It's not because I overthink it. It's not because I'm doing it wrong or scaring them off. I am not the fucking cause of the problems or the reason we don’t work out.

It’s also never the same story. The guy in question, the circumstances, my feelings; all these things are different each time.

When I meet a guy and things don’t work out, it’s due to a wide array of issues. Maybe it's timing. Maybe he's immature as fuck. Maybe he's in a weird place in his life. Maybe he's depressed. None of the above things are my fault. I am not the cause of these issues.

Which of course means that I can't control these things either. Sometimes shit just doesn't work out. And that's OK.

I can't believe I'm 27 and still have to remind myself that I am not in control of the universe.

I'm taking a chill pill now.

If I could control the universe I’d set myself up for a date with Tom Hiddleston.

 

But since I can’t I’ll just be content with posting pictures of him and appreciating the fact that he exists. It gives me hope.

Tom is like the black swan that proves that even though all you’ve seen in real life so far are white swans, other kinds of swans do exist.

I feel no remorse about this Tom Hiddleston black/white spam. It's just simply marvelous.

But I do feel it's important to note that the patterns you notice in your own behavior? They might not actually be there. It's just stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the world. Usually when I tell myself the story of my life, I put way too much importance on the consequences of my actions. But the alternative - letting go - has always terrified me more than the guilt I felt for not being good enough.

But I think I have to start letting go and be more kind to myself. I'll keep you updated on how that goes.

Failing the Bechdel Test

I’m sitting at my local coffee shop.

Next to me are two young women. Not particularly pretty, but not unattractive either. And all they are talking about are boyfriends and how they used to have them and how they don’t anymore and how they feel comfortable where they are. If their life was a movie, it would not pass the Bechdel Test.

One of them noticed that her ex-boyfriend deleted her on facebook over the weekend. Not because she’s stalking him or anything. She just notices stuff like that really quick. Riiiiiight.

And then she goes on to talk about how she would totally go for that guy she met at new year’s eve. But she’s like really enjoying being single and getting to know who she is when she’s on her own.

I’m really eaves dropping aren’t I?

They’ve left now. So now it’s just me and my own thoughts.

This one woman (who did most of the talking) kept on insisting she was happy, but her whole way of thinking and the things she talked about just didn’t match up. If you are happy being single why are you checking your ex’s facebook? Why are you thinking about that guy you met almost 3½ months ago and that ‘you’d totally go for’ if he called? It’s been months – it’s not going to happen. Why are you not present in your own life as it is? Instead you’re caught up in the whole ‘could have – would have – should have.’

Sitting here thinking about it, It sounded like she was trying to convince herself that she was happy.

I pity her.  And I see myself reflected in her. It’s actually pretty uncomfortable to see myself as someone I don’t like.

You can bet that whenever I judge somebody, I judge myself by the same standards.

I don’t quite know what to do about it.

I could try to be more positive, but that would just be the equivalent of me trying to convince you guys that I’m totally fine and a-okay as a way to convince myself. But I’m not happy about my life right now. And trying to pretend won’t be enough.

Fuck it.

I’m going to work some more on my excel spreadsheet of wonder and rainbow colors and figure out what to do some other day. It’ll be a problem for Cat from the Future. She’s much smarter than me anyways. She’ll know what to do for sure.

Non-consequential Thoughts

I had this post written where I complained a bit about my life and stuff in general, and I was all ready to hit publish, but then I thought – why would I share this with the world?

I don’t really think about what I post here. It’s mostly just whatever’s in my head. But you know that friend that always complains and never seems to be able to be happy about anything? That friend is exhaustive to be around. Thinking about it now I actually think I’ve successfully managed to not have that kind of friend anymore.

But I don’t want this blog to turn into the cyber equivalent of a negative nelly.

So yeah. Non-trivial shit and stress is getting me down at the moment, but fuck that. There are more interesting things about me I’d like to tell you.

• In an attempt to not being defined by my job I signed up to do a 8 km obstacle course, military stile. It’s called Toughest. Because it’s the Toughest race out there. Yeah – I’m not even kidding you.
• I want to write and publish articles on knowledge management, the networked organization, and whatever other buzzword I can think of. That’s gonna be a project for the next time I’m bored.
• I got a new washing machine. When you turn it on and open the side-door, lights come on inside it. It’s freaking awesome. 
• I’m considering working Pocahontas and ‘Colors of the Wind’ into my presentation at work. You only have the fun you make yourself, right? But the thing is my job is pretty … conservative. It’s famous for it in Denmark. And I’m not quite sure they’ll be able to handle a Disney reference in a presentation about our IT application landscape. It’s also going to be my first presentation. Maybe I shouldn’t press my luck? 
• I just spent an hour writing this post (twice) instead of doing actual work. But then again, it’s 8PM so I guess it’s okay to be not working.

Aah, who am I kidding. I’ve got an excel spreadsheet to gaze lovingly into.

*plays ‘Colors of the Wind’ on Spotify*

Toodles!