team eesen

Mississippi Moment of Clarity

I’m in Jackson, Mississippi this weekend. I went to a crawfish boil with friends of a friend. After a few beers and a few hours of laughing with these people I’ve never met before, I had a thought.

There is so much fun to be had in odd places with new people. We forget that. We go through our lives doing the same thing, seeing the same people, and going to the same bars even though there’s so much out there. So, so much.

Complacency is simple. “Just happy enough” is a plague-ridden safety blanket. We need to keep jumping at new experiences and putting ourselves out there to fail because that enemy known as “routine” is always nipping at our heels. Routine is the voice in the back of your head saying “you might fail” and “but you don’t have any idea what will happen next.” It’s telling you that “it’s gonna be awkward” and “it’ll never work out.”

New is your ally. Different is your partner-in-crime. Strange is your bedfellow. We need to start telling ourselves to fail. To be unsure. To put yourself out there. Feel fear. Get dirty. Fuck up. Move forward.

Try. 

Maybe all it takes is a Mississippi Crawfish Boil with two strangers you’ll probably never see again to jolt you awake. Maybe that’s a life-altering moment waiting to happen. You never know until you give it a shot.