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Do you remember life before the internet?

Yes. And it was beautiful.

I Am So Ordinary at 55 (And That’s Okay)

Consider this the unholy trinity of the Influencer Age. If I see the following statements open any social media reel or post, my jaw clenches immediately. Through gritted teeth and a roll of my eyes, I put my phone down and reprimand myself for falling into the endless scroll of cerebral death again.

• “This is a game changer…”
• “I am obsessed with…”
• “A lot of you have been asking…” or “Hey you guys…”

If we have multitudes of people wanting and/or hustling to be influencers, what happens when there is no one else to be influenced?

When did being ordinary become such a negative thing?

And she is your holy Mary
And I am so ordinary
And she is your Queen Cleopatra
And I’m just your morning after
And she is your Star Spangled Banner
And I am just Frere Jacques
And you can lose me if you want to

And I am so ordinary

Shows are canceled just as a long-running series comes to an end. Films fail, no matter how hard you try to court an audience. Just like sentences come to a conclusion, stories, like life, come to an end. And that’s how I feel about this chapter of my career, which feels like it’s being swallowed alive by the concussive effects of an ongoing youthquake that dominates all spheres of industry these days.

I feel unseen and irrelevant now, which gathers intensity when I view it through the lens of the seminal 1976 sci-fi classic Logan’s Run, where all lives end at age 30, ensuring the social order of hedonism and endless youth remains intact.

Instead of facts and true discourse, we have companies dedicated to the incessant pandering to a demographic that only cares about itself and its pursuit of limitless pleasure while avoiding accountability for its deficits. Given this generation’s penchant for “woke theatrics, ” I find this ironic,” disavowing the history of social change before them.

But yet, we have a group finding relevance and purpose with their promotion of quotidian cuisine or beauty brands of choice as “Influencers” espousing a doctrine of consumerism in a constant bid for approval. Why can’t the focus be on influencing a generation to be kinder and empathetic to the people around you, regardless of age? Dare to life coach yourselves, please.

Mental wellness is a personal journey that may also require the assistance of a professional, not relying on some carefully curated meme or video from a soft-voiced influencer. From what I see daily, most of us are no more or less equipped to handle the stresses of modern life. Why are we validating total strangers for what amounts to exercising common sense filtered through a prism of their own experiences?

I don’t write to reach an audience, nor is it my goal to influence anyone. I write to fill a void of my own doing, and expressing what I feel helps me not let that void consume me. I want to keep a record of my progress. I write to keep my brain active. I write to liberate the feelings I don’t want to contain anymore. I write because roaming around a blank page without a pre-determined destination feels good.

I write because I found the words at long last to influence myself to become better, healthier, and happier. I write because I recognize being ordinary, like being nice, needs to matter in my world again.