While listening to a talk recently, someone said, “if you want to be an interesting person, you shouldn’t be afraid of not having the same opinion as others.” Isn’t this a pretty bold piece of advice? Especially when we think about how a lot of us chase after the latest technology like everyone else in order to get more attention; buy the latest fashion in the hopes of looking like the people we admire; buy houses that we believe people like ourselves should inhabit and then spend twenty years of our lives at a desk job trying to pay off the debt.

When our lives revolve around catching the attention of others, we’re bound to a pretty limited list of things that are interesting. Young, beautiful, smart, creative, charismatic, rich, good hearted, entertaining, athletic, mysterious, talented…whereas everyone possesses so much more than that. And it’s exactly these opposing forces, contrasting emotions, and dark sides that make us real and set us apart from the TV series actor who always says the most striking lines.

When we try to stand out by choosing to be like everyone else, we’re actually committing the greatest injustice to ourselves. The life we’re spurning and not giving a chance to is our own. The dreams we’ll never realize, the needs we always push into a corner, the words we’ll never utter, the paths we’ll never walk on…while all these await to see the light of day, we choose to play the role of someone else. How did they make us believe that this would be interesting? With what did they fool us and where did we forget who we are?

Turn off your television. Put your phone on silent. Let those people who always talk about the same topics, who complain and believe to know what’s best, rattle away in their corner.

Buy a ticket.

Today.

Alone.

To that far away and intriguing country you’ve always wanted to visit.

Ege

Translated by Feride Yalav-Heckeroth