If you want to have a happy life, you need to role play.
Let me explain myself.
Growing up, I was constantly playing make believe. I had an imaginary friend named Lisa by the time I was 5; a full time career as an imaginary secretary/waitress/lawyer/teacher/librarian/Michael Jackson's wife whenever my favorite cousin came over to play and of course, I was well versed in the imaginary world of playing mommy to my favorite baby dolls whenever the mood struck. As I got a little older, that sense of make believe did not go away. I was blessed to grow up on a block full of 20 somewhat kids who shared in similar tastes as mine. Therefore, it was not out of the ordinary to watch a musical production that we put together and performed for the neighborhood or to watch our version of American Idol before Simon Cowell even knew what a singing contest was. I pretended to be older than I really was when I dabbled in my older sister's makeup and wore her clothes while she was at work (sorry sis) and even during school hours I always found myself drawn to the theatrical productions that were being put on. Nothing is more exhilarating than facing an anticipating audience and giving them exact
And so, it wasn't a surprise to myself that when I finally found myself in college, I dreamed of being a theater major. I took theater classes of all sorts and envisioned a life of an off broadway star--destitute but deliriously happy because I was practicing my craft. Of course I woke up from this dream rather abruptly when my father assured me that I'd be broke and looking around at all of the beautiful, material things that surrounded me, I agreed that I'd rather be rich & unhappy.
So, I became a grown up.
I chose a semi-serious major and began to dream of business suits and briefcases; client lunches and expense reports. I replaced my dreams of starring on Broadway with a corner office on Broadway (literally) and slowly but surely, the actress within me closed her eyes and went into a deep sleep.
It's been almost 13 years since I graduated college though and truth be told, I am taking the long road to telling my story or rather, sharing my advice.
If you want to lead a happy life: role-play.
I know what most of you are assuming, and I know what many of you are secretly wishing, but I'm not talking about that type of private role-play. I'm talking about the kind that you can do in public (or private) alone (or with the one you love).
Last night my husband and I had an impromptu date. We planned for a night alone (sans baby) to do some Christmas shopping. This small step suddenly propelled us into a night of spontaneous role-play. With just the two of us, we could roam up and down aisles freely and take a few minutes, or even twenty minutes to ponder over the purchase of something without our attention being constantly diverted by a two year old. We picked up items and imagined a life of splurging on luxuries that we could realistically never afford. But pretending like it was just us, gave us that ability to relax and pretend. To cap it off, we caught a quick bite at our favorite fast food place: Chipotle. Surrounded by a bevy of college students is what really enticed us to take our role-playing to the next level. Via text my husband suggested that we pretend that we were college students so that we could "blend in"--and so we did. We began to talk about the classes we would be fake registering for and the imaginary professors who gave us the most grief. I'm not sure if anyone was paying attention to us, but we were giddy with the thought that someone could be listening and actually believing us. And so shortly after, we found ourselves in hysterics, and became so loud and obnoxious that our role-play drowned out any of our college-age peers twerking/tweaking/miley cyrus/justin bieber/molly talk that they might have been having.
With our bellies full of good grub and aching from a good laugh, we left dinner hand in hand, our hearts suddenly feeling younger and happier.
Of course, it only took a few minutes outside of our role-play to suddenly transform back into our old selves, as if the cold could somehow freeze away the fun. And by the time we got home, we had returned back to being "mama" & "baba" and our college alter-egos were tucked safely away inside of our souls.
However deep down inside though, I couldn't stop thinking about how happy it made us feel to pretend to be someone else for a little while. And that is why I shared with you the stories about growing up and pretending too. My fondest memories growing up were always pretending or dreaming about what I wanted to be when I grew up. Now that I'm a grown up though, why is it taboo to still pretend? To still dream? Why can't we role-play to give ourselves a break from the severity of our everyday lives?
So, take a moment and talk in an accent. Throw on a different shade of lipstick and pretend you are a rockstar. Walk down Fifth Avenue and pretend like you can afford to shop in every store you walk by (you just are choosing not to!). Talk a walk back in time and become young again. Become carefree again. Become, happy.
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