You Are Here. Your Comfort Zone Is Way the Fuck over There.

Let's have a little blog time devoted to the comfort zone.

I don't think I'm the kind of person who really is overly concerned with things. I'm not the most laid-back person by any means, but I'm certainly no crisis waiting to happen either. I think I'm somewhere in the middle.

So let's focus on the kinds of things that take me out of my comfort zone. I should note that I've been out of it for a while. It's unpleasant.

Item Numero Uno: People speaking foreign languages around me. I didn't take Spanish. I didn't take French. I didn't take anything anyone still speaks. So don't have a conversation around me in another language. It's just rude.

Item Number the Second: People I don't know en masse. This includes people I've met only a few times. If I don't know you, then you don't know me. And if you don't know me, then you're undoubtedly assessing me, ranking me by your own scale from "too fucked up to function" to "I need to have more friends like this." I don't like trying to impress people, and I really don't like feeling that I have to try to impress people.

Item Three: Church. Still. Just thought I'd throw that one out there. Did you like how I used the number 3, as if it were some obligatory reference to the trinity? Yeah, that wasn't an accident.

Item Four: Possibly the most insecure thing: my financial situation. I'm poor. I'm no longer government poor, but I am so indebted that there isn't a way out in at least five years, and that doesn't even count those student loans. That means every single paycheck I get in the next 60 MONTHS is already obligated to something else. And I STILL have to buy a car...

Why the sudden listing? Well, I love asking myself questions and answering them, so I'll jump right in here: I've been out of my comfort zone lately. I've felt out of place at work, I felt more than out of place last weekend, and the thought of adding a car payment to my already paper-thin budget makes me want to file bankruptcy and suffer the consequences. But I think 23 is too early for that milestone.

No, I don't think life is supposed to be easy. I don't think I should get everything I want at all times, and I don't think gas and food should be free.

But it shouldn't be this hard. There are some things in life people should never have to go through, and even more things you shouldn't have to face at least until your late 30s. So why me? What did I do?

I ask this because I do think I'm being punished. I don't steal, I don't lie, I don't sleep around, I don't do drugs. I don't even smoke.

But I'm not healthy. I'm healthier than I was, but I'm still only 85% or so. I don't have a degree. I'm almost 24, and I'm unmarried, no kids, and I haven't seen the ocean in six years. Sometimes I wonder if it's still there, or maybe it, too, is losing it's drive, contemplating it's existence, thinking maybe I'm not here.