Over the course of this summer, I have been totally blessed with TWO, count em, TWO retail jobs.
And as much as I appreciate the fact that I do have these jobs, I'm realizing a little more everyday that I was made for something so different than what society says is success.
“Once in a while it really hits people that they don't have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.”
-Alan Keightley
I stumbled upon this quote today, and it led me to want to write these words you're reading now.
I don't know when exactly I stopped believing in consumerism. It might have been when Ms. Brown, my former journalism teacher, and the woman who first told me about STN, showed me a Christmas video that called people to do something different than just give gifts.
It might have been growing up watching my mom work herself to exhaustion during the holidays in the hopes of having enough Christmas presents under the tree for me and my two brothers.
It might have been in my three months in Hawaii. Where a good, home-cooked meal would have meant way more than an unlimited shopping spree to any clothing store.
Or it might have been the nights I would stay up, angry, because it wasn't fair that I had so much, and others had so little. Others who I had maybe never met, but who I knew my life would intersect with one day.
So today, when I found this quote, it all clicked.
I have been wired to live simply since the day I was born. It wasn't my mother's doing, because she probably wished I bragged a little less when I've hit the three day-no shower mark. But it's just the person I am.
And it says a lot about the life I know I've been called to.
And as I'm writing all this, I'm realizing my goal to not be a consumer won't just be for this year of my life.
Because the truth is, you'll never see me in a store with a cart loaded with flip flops, or lotions.
And I'll probably never go back to wearing make-up.
And I don't foresee myself ever having a nice car or a house in the suburbs.
But I have a glimpse of what my future holds.
And what I see unfolding, I love.
Because it's passion that's been amplified, and a dream that's coming alive.
And I'm stoked for it.
P.s. if you'd like to join me in my year of living simply so that all may simply live, just message me, because I'd love to tell you more.
Thank you all for your love.
-Casey Marissa
