Conform Your Way To Non-Conformity

Hello to all you non-conformists; you beanie wearers, you multi-colored jeans owners, you lack of shower takers. Hello to you all - champions of the counter culture, torch bearers of individuality, believers in deep-rooted principles.

As you read this article while sitting in your local independent coffee shop, wearing your 1969 Pink Floyd concert tee (how was that concert, by the way?), listening to a band that you will most surely hate as soon as someone else knows about them, you should ask yourself - why did I walk by six Starbucks in order to get here?

Because screw the man! You will take your dollar fifty and walk three miles uphill (both ways) in order to support a local business, thank you very much.

Forget the fact that Starbucks' stock price will fall 0% because of your decision, and that the independent business you are supporting will gladly take your money until they can be bought out by a corporation like Starbucks; it's the principle baby! Stick it to the man! Occupy Wall Street! How about you occupy a classroom, so you can begin to understand what the hell you are even trying to rebel against?

In today's world, people have forgotten what it means to be an individual, or why they even rebel against certain issues. Individuality has become a fad, and rebellion has become the new thing to do on a Friday night.  Instead of being truly oneself (which is literally being an individual - there is only one of you), one looks at an individual - a non-conformist - and says, "look at that guy's unique style, I want to be just like him!" Well, chances are that he got that unique style from someone else's unique style, and pretty soon that style isn't so unique. Without knowing it, you just non-conformed your way to conformity.

I hope at this point your head isn't starting to spin. If non-conforming is conforming, then is up now down? Is left now right? And most disturbing,  am I now gay?

While I don't know the meaning of some odd dreams I've been having lately, I do know one thing for sure. Former conformists are now the non-conformists. In a world where everyone is trying hard not to conform by dying their hair, ripping their jeans, wearing cheap Ray Bans, and donning loose beanies, it is the clean cut individual who has become the non-conformist.

So keep rebelling, all you clean shaven, shoe wearing, job working people; stick it to the mainstream, non-conformist, hipster man.

And now that I think about it, keep rebelling too, all you tight shirt owning, sandal wearing, independent-coffee drinking individuals. The bottom line is that it's OK to conform a little bit, as long as you stay true to yourself. I mean, there are Starbucks in Berkeley.

Sincerely,


#Recovering FratBoy

For updated articles and ridiculous thoughts on life, love, and the pursuit, check me out on Facebook and Twitter:

Like me on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/RecoveringFratBoy

Follow me on Twitter: @RecoveringFB