This fear I have about being a cliche is peculiar, I believe I only feel that way because I have watched so much darn TV during my years, seeing as I don't personally know anyone like me and I often feel lonely, which is exactly the kind of cliche I worry about being, because apparently everyone feels lonely. But to avoid the repetitive feeling I need to explore why it effects me.
Society is what makes us people, we are social creatures and we congregate to do things we enjoy together, but it can also be oppressive. I used to hang out with Music students when I was studying English at Uni and although we had some similar interests it was the music that brought them together and excluded me, but as I didn't meet up with my linguistic group to rock out to a new Noam Chomsky blog I only have myself to blame. Now, obviously, if they are music students they are all going to enjoy music, but it would encroach almost all other subjects, musical jargon and quotes from 'in jokes' plagued my day to day conversations with these people and there was nothing I could do about it. I just felt left out. I did help start up the Linguistic Society though, which I believe is still going, but that was to help us and other students with our course. Also linguistics is a very fiddly subject which is fascinating to dissect but not as easy to comment on as a song, for example. It isn't a creative subject either, we tried to make it fun and interactive but at the end of the day it is about facts, data and interpretations.
I felt accepted and a part of it when I was talking about things I like with people I like, and although it splintered when our exams came into view I enjoyed running the Linguistic Society. Maybe it wasn't my vocation, but a social experiment. My friend Emma emigrated to Florida a few years ago, we had grown up together over the past decade and it was nice to have a running buddy, we do things individually but together, I was a ska kid she liked Indie, we worked. However, since she left the UK I have made other friends but they are not quite the same fit, with most people I speak to I wish there was an eject button available and I don't know why. This is this feeling I want to get rid of. I am no better or worse than anyone else so why do I hit that point where I want to disappear?
At the end of it all though, it is down to me, I was brought into the world alone and I will leave the world alone, and no one will know what I do or think when I am alone, because of the ol' observers paradox. Same as I can't tell what they are thinking or feeling, and some people are pretty good at faking excessive happiness. Or they come off in a bad way and don't realize, or do and simply don't care about your opinion (that's the life). We live in the age of refinement, not invention, so the feeling of being cliche is almost unavoidable as it has all been done before (and tweeted, tagged and liked).The comfort society brings is that if everyone is doing it it must be ok. Don't loaf on it. H xoxox
I felt accepted and a part of it when I was talking about things I like with people I like, and although it splintered when our exams came into view I enjoyed running the Linguistic Society. Maybe it wasn't my vocation, but a social experiment. My friend Emma emigrated to Florida a few years ago, we had grown up together over the past decade and it was nice to have a running buddy, we do things individually but together, I was a ska kid she liked Indie, we worked. However, since she left the UK I have made other friends but they are not quite the same fit, with most people I speak to I wish there was an eject button available and I don't know why. This is this feeling I want to get rid of. I am no better or worse than anyone else so why do I hit that point where I want to disappear?
At the end of it all though, it is down to me, I was brought into the world alone and I will leave the world alone, and no one will know what I do or think when I am alone, because of the ol' observers paradox. Same as I can't tell what they are thinking or feeling, and some people are pretty good at faking excessive happiness. Or they come off in a bad way and don't realize, or do and simply don't care about your opinion (that's the life). We live in the age of refinement, not invention, so the feeling of being cliche is almost unavoidable as it has all been done before (and tweeted, tagged and liked).The comfort society brings is that if everyone is doing it it must be ok. Don't loaf on it. H xoxox
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