Nouns

My friends and I may only be in our early-to-mid twenties, but it's scary how we're getting old before our time. 

A few weekends ago I was sitting in a lovely pub beside a crackling fire with a few of my ex-housemates from University and I found myself.... drinking cranberry juice and masking a poorly suppressed yawn with my hand. Hardly the wild child I was but 5 years ago as a fresh-faced undergraduate! And I wasn't the only one. My dear friend B was as sleepy as I was. 

We fell into conversation about how all either of us seemed to do these days was drag ourselves off in the early hours to jobs that we were ill-suited to, which simply paid the bills. Not only that, but by the time our "me time" came around we were too tired to enjoy it. 

I couldn't help comparing our current situation with that of our student days. Back then I spent my time rehearsing plays, learning to swing dance and being graded on how well I could skip in a square (one of my favourite anecdotes but another time). All of my efforts were being exerted to improve and educate myself and I felt tired, but in a good way.

Now my day to day life revolves around exhausting myself to meet the numerous demands of the company I work for. I've never felt more like a number than I do in my current job (and I can say that now, because I'm leaving it). There's no room for personal development, it's all about how much money we're making for the fat cats way above us. Lesson here: never ask a creative person to work for a heartless business. 

The fact is a large number of my friends are in this situation; it's completely normal to be doing a 'transitional' job at this age. You know it's not the one, it's just good for now because it meets your basic needs. Kind of like the romantic relationships you had in your teens. The important thing is not to forget your passions. My excuse is always that I "don't have time" to be creative anymore. I'm too busy in the rat race and doing banal, everyday things like eating, bathing and sleeping. But talents are like muscles, you have to exercise them. You have to make time. Set aside an hour a day to doing the things you love, things that you would like one day to be paid to do. This is one of my focal points for 2014.

Which is why from now on I am going to write a blog post every day.

I've always considered myself an actress first and foremost. But the amount of times various people have said to me, "You're a writer" cannot be ignored. This brings to mind one of my favourite Stephen Fry quotes:

"We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing - an actor, a writer - I am a person who does things  - I write, I act - and I never know what I am going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun."

Personally I've always admired those with an impressive list of nouns after their name. Zooey Deschanel - actress, musician and singer-songwriter. Eddie Redmayne - actor, singer and model. Oprah Winfrey - media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. You get the idea. 

My mum is always reminding me is that while it's all well and good to be inspired by your heroes, try to focus on your own journey. Instead of expending your energies being a fan, work on making yourself into the type of person you would be a fan of. 

As Matthew McConaughey's mother told him when he was younger, 

"Don't watch somebody on TV do it for you, get out there and do it for yourself."

Wise people, mums.  

And what would my ideal noun list say, I hear you ask?

Olivia Smith - actress, writer, vlogger, lifestyle blogger and well-travelled adventurer. To start with, anyway.

What are your nouns?