chapter two | the human condition in the modern world.

the human condition in the modern world.

{ reprinted from the Rococo Vintage tumblr. }


    Do you ever pause, crinkle your eyebrows, and ask yourself, “Do I really know what I’m doing? Do I, in fact, have any idea what I’m doing?”

    Of course you do, you’re human. You live in the modern world and, no matter how confident you are, you are conditioned to be insecure.

    You’re on Facebook and Instagram and you look at your peers who are married or going out or dancing or always gosh darn smiling, and you feel that everyone, everyone is “doing better” than you are. Everyone, or at the very least, that select few; or one; or two. They are better than you, you are convinced of it. They are happier than you, it’s so obvious. They are cooler than you, people like them more, they make more money, they have more boyfriends, they’re skinnier, they have bigger boobs, they have just the best and thickest most luxurious hair that you have ever seen and why oh why doesn’t my hair look like that… et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

    I want to share with you now a quote I once read that has done a lot for me. “Don’t compare your insides to somebody else’s outsides.” It has amazed me the things I have learned about the lives of those who, from their Facebook pages (oh god, admitting that makes me feel like such a nerd) I figured had it all together — had idyllic relationships and lucrative jobs and fulfilling creative lives — when we actually met out for tea. You never know. You really never do.

    Which of course is not to say that there are not those who arethat fulfilled and that self-realized and that ‘successful’ (whatever that means to you,) it is only that we all have our own journeys, and our own struggles. Our story is that we are who we are. Sometimes that feels awful and unfair, but I promise you, there is nothing and no one more magical than you. If only you can see it. And in some cases, if only you can force yourself to see it. Sometimes force is required to produce growth.

    There is nothing wrong with putting on blinders if it means that you will see more clearly that which you really should be seeing. Does that make any sense? I’m not sure.

   Does it have anything to do with the Rococo Vintage shop? No, not really. Then why did I write it? Well… why not? After all, I’m not really as depthfully fulfilled by my job as my Facebook friends think I am. ;)