“It is essential to happiness that our way of living should spring from our own deep impulses and not from the accidental tastes and desires of those who happen to be our neighbors.”

– Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

The thinkers say it’s true, then it must be. Well, obviously it is. Too often we’re tied to the dictates of others. What will they think of us? How will they look on us? It’s why we stay in jobs and relationships that no longer fulfill us instead of radically changing the parameters of those things. I get why it’s important. We’re tribal animals and in order to survive we’ve had to fit in with the tribe or be cast out. But like everything else, it’s been perverted in modern times – to an overgrown obsession with fitting in.

But I like the misfits. I like those who have chosen something else – they’ve got the most interesting stories. Stories they’re only willing to share one on one over a glass, in confidence. Those are the best people and I love their stories and their secret lives.

We should be a little less concerned about what other think of us, and a little more concerned about what we think of ourselves.

Top – Gold Morning
Jeans – Lucky Brand
Shoes – House of Harlow c/o Saks Fifth Avenue