Year of the Dumpster Fire

The subtle art of giving a fuck

When Jerit and I moved together people were concerned. We have both been known to be on the “adventurous” side of life much how you would describe the friendship of John Belushi and Chevy Chase. What happens when you end up living in a dorm room at 26? You end up growing professionally, get in the best shape of your life, and go to a lot more concerts. There’s also the shenanigans.

We live with about six other friends at our apartment complex. This means that sometimes grabbing a glass of water before going to bed on a Tuesday becomes a request to go to the bar until closing time. Or a casual 4th of July BBQ turns to a 250 person pool party that ends in viewing fireworks on our rooftop (our rooftop isn’t meant to be accessed by residents).

So what happens when you’re 28 still living in a dorm room?

You shoot your shot

The thing about success is that it never just happens for no reason. You’ve got to take chances and create opportunities. We often limit ourselves because we are afraid of failure or even the embarrasment of rejection. At some point in life we are taught to be afraid of risks; we take the safe path and experience only moderate come-ups under the disguise of practicality.

Care enough to be a little wreckless and put yourself in a position to succeed beyond what you believe you’re capable of. It’s a lot scarier to think of “what if” because you never stepped up than look back at all the times you fell flat on your ass but smile because you seized the opportunity.

You stop overthinking

Failure is terrifying and fear is too often a stronger motivator than our hunger to improve. Luckily, there’s something about drunken peer pressure that makes you say “fuck it” a lot and put fear aside. And yes, you’re absolutely right to think that this approach leads to some hilariously spectacular failures but I’m a child of the 90’s — I learned that polyester isn’t a fire-safe fabric by literally setting myself on fire for getting too close to a candle during a power-outage (and also, keep fire at a safe distance).

The point is, if you get burned enough times you instinctively learn what not to do to avoid it from happening again. It seems obvious for everyday occurences like “don’t talk to the cute girl whose boyfriend clearly does Crossfit” but we forget about this in other aspects like at work. I haven’t gotten this far in life because I spent countless hours overthinking every possible scenario and taking the route with the biggest ROI. My best decisions have always been the ones where I simply made a judgement call and hoped for the best.

Fuck up every now and then — it will lead to exponentially more success than being right every time.

You find your squad

It’s important to note that a strong support group is key in following a proper dumpster fire year. As I write this Jerit and I have drank through a fifth of Tito’s lounging by the pool and I know that any decision leading from this will be questionable at best (update: I was right). However, we are going for it despite our collective desire to pass out and call it a day.

Having friends that can help you make bad decisions is great but friends that will support your moonshot ideas and challenge you to grow are even better. The year of the dumpster fire is about living freely; no limitations and no hate. Simply put, we want to be at our best because we know that if one of us does well we’ll all collectively come up as a squad.

That’s an important thing to remember — 2018 continues to prove that life is chaotic and unpredictable but we must embrace the chaos that is life. For some of us the world has seemingly gone to shit but the reality is that there’s always external forces throwing curveballs to your best laid out plans. There’s always noise and always a reason to be afraid that forces you to take the safe route.

Don’t overthink it, surround yourself with love, and shoot your damn shot.