Carpe Diem: Making Your Lives Extraordinary, Period 4, Class 4
Drake had handwavily informed the students that class would be held at the picnic tables outside the dorms. Why not?
"Rules exist for a reason," he began the class. "There are some things you're not supposed to do, like hurt other people or take their stuff without permission. But some rules don't exist to show you what's right and wrong -- some of them are more like guidelines to 'proper'" -- he wiggled his fingers in the air quotes gesture here -- "behavior. Do this, do that, wear this, eat that. Conformity. Rules, expectations, social norms, peer pressure. Garbage.
"If you're going to suck the marrow out of life, you need to be doing it for yourself first and foremost. Otherwise you're just sucking someone else's marrow." Pause. "Not dirty.
"Now, I'm not advocating chaos and anarchy here, though that can be fun sometimes, too. Like I said, some rules exist for a reason, and sucking said marrow doesn't mean doing so at the expense of others. But it's important to be yourself. You are you, not what your family or your world or anyone else tells you you are. If that were the case, I'd still be hanging out in the underworld eating babies or something.
"So today I want to tell me about some time you've broken the rules to be yourself. Why didn't you conform? And if you can't come up with anything, tell me why you've never rebelled against what was expected of you."
"Rules exist for a reason," he began the class. "There are some things you're not supposed to do, like hurt other people or take their stuff without permission. But some rules don't exist to show you what's right and wrong -- some of them are more like guidelines to 'proper'" -- he wiggled his fingers in the air quotes gesture here -- "behavior. Do this, do that, wear this, eat that. Conformity. Rules, expectations, social norms, peer pressure. Garbage.
"If you're going to suck the marrow out of life, you need to be doing it for yourself first and foremost. Otherwise you're just sucking someone else's marrow." Pause. "Not dirty.
"Now, I'm not advocating chaos and anarchy here, though that can be fun sometimes, too. Like I said, some rules exist for a reason, and sucking said marrow doesn't mean doing so at the expense of others. But it's important to be yourself. You are you, not what your family or your world or anyone else tells you you are. If that were the case, I'd still be hanging out in the underworld eating babies or something.
"So today I want to tell me about some time you've broken the rules to be yourself. Why didn't you conform? And if you can't come up with anything, tell me why you've never rebelled against what was expected of you."