06 Feb 18: Song of the Day

Song: Doin' Me

Artist: Mikey Mike

Album (year): Doin' Me - Single (2017)

Notable Lyric:

"My momma said "But Mike, don't you wanna be comfortable?" I said "No! I don't wanna be comfortable!" I wanna be scared outta my head and, lost outta my mind I wanna fall in and outta love a few thousand times"

By no coincidence my first two #SOTDs are by someone called Mike!

In 2017 I graduated from university with no real clue of what I wanted to do. Barely a day went by without hearing the question, "So, what are you going to do after uni?". As a joke I'd reply I'm going into full-time Funemployment (having fun while unemployed) but in reality the uncertainty terrified me.

The mental back-and-forth of convincing myself to do something I'm truly passionate about but also doing something that will be give me financial stability was a constant feature of my personal thoughts. Finding something that covers both is still something I'm searching for.

I feel I've the idea of school to university to graduate job has been drilled into me and not following that channel places will not lead to a "success" life. Due to lack of other tangible measures, for a long time money = success in my mind.

This song is one that I listen to when I need to remind myself that you are in charge of what you define as "success". Just because I'm not earning £40,000+ at Morgan Stanley doesn't mean I'm not doing well. One day I may publish my personal collection of rejection emails from corporate "mainstream" graduate programmes.

The reason I chose those lines about as the notable lyric was because of how the idea of comfort makes you think you're safe. For a long time I've been resistant to stepping out of that safe zone because I'm afraid that committing to something that ends in failure would be a waste time. This concept of having a life plan is ridiculous because, if you're truly honest with yourself, you don't know where you'll be in 12 months from now.

Letting go of control and embracing the idea of "being scared out of your head and lost our of your mind" is necessary to understand who you are.

There's no correct way to got through life - so fuck what they say and do you.

"I won't waste another day living someone else's way - I wanna be happy, I wanna be free. Fuck what they say, I'm doing me."