- I like doing my own thing - regardless of what others around me are doing.
Life is full of them. Everywhere you go and everything you do expectations are everywhere. Sometimes they are obvious and other times not so much. It's like the song, "Signs" by Tesla. We are always faced with signs and expectations put on us by people and circumstances around us. The song says it quite well, "Long hair freaky people need not apply." My question is, "Why not?".
What am I talking about? Well, take this week for example, it was Thanksgiving. So what is it everyone immediately equates with Thanksgiving? Turkeys. But why? (I know Greek Girl did take history... and I know it was the Pilgrims giving Thanks for surviving) But why can't we do the unexpected? Why do we have to get together with the whole entire family? Why do so many people follow it up with a trip to the mall on Black Friday? If you ask me it's because we are programmed to thinking and doing what is expected of us. So, instead this year we did things different at the Aston house. We had a London Broil cooked on the grill with a little A-1 Steak-sauce.
- A-1, It's how Thanksgiving is done. :)
Now take me for example. I am an independent recording artist who aspires to be an internationally known act on the same level as The Goo Goo Dolls and Kelly Clarkson. But because I am over 20 years old people tell me I can't be serious and have to give up. Or they hear I would love to be able to perform on Broadway and immediately I am told the "standard expectations" that go along with if you can even be considered for Broadway. Then my all-time favorite is that because I am married I should have 2.5 kids by now, love sewing, and be up baking apple pies at 5AM. Nope no way, my honey does the cooking around here while I'm downstairs in my sanctuary working out! That's just how we roll. And we don't have kids, we have dogs.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for a good apple pie but really? Why all the silly expectations? Why the rules and the stereotypical answers to everyday situations? It's like my newest song, "I Don't Even Care" (lyric video below), that talks about this very thing. There are tons of people and expectations we place on ourselves and molds we try to fit into in order to do what - keep up with the Jones' - or to please others?
All I am saying is, life is way too short to not do what you want and not what others expect of you. It's one thing to be respectful and to maintain a civilized manner and of course obey the law. That's not what I am talking about. I am saying, too many times in each of our lives we are faced with people and situations - mostly people who don't like our choices. They feel like they are an expert at how you can best live your own life. They act like because they have been around the block a time or two that the rules and situations they encountered must exist for everyone including you. This is especially true to those who are either close to us in our own lives or they are the gate-keepers who can help you along your journey.
Basically, I see it like this. God gave us all a free will. He also called us to stand out and to go the extra mile. He even said we should walk the road less traveled. People will know us by our fruit and if we are all bearing the same exact fruit all the time, then how will they know us to be any different? How will people want to come to know God through us? For that matter, how will God know us as being responsible with the gifts He gave us? He put in each of our hearts a gift and talents. Each of which are specific for our purpose here on Earth. So, in order to fulfill that purpose, one that can only be fulfilled by yourself, then you can't live by the expectations and rules placed on you by others.
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