The (un)Comfort Zone

In any society, there is always somehow going to be a social ladder where every person is classified under a specific rung. While moving up seems to be encouraged, falling down is frowned upon. In Dumpster Diving and Serving in Florida, Eighner and Ehrenreich willingly chose to live a life of discomfort and misfortune even when having the ability of escaping that lifestyle at any time. It was brave of them to swallow up their pride and join the crowd that most view as hopeless and doomed. As a result, both the authors discovered meaning through their new experiences.

Eighner actually came to like “Dumpster diving”. As an educated man, he found value in the scraps of others and learned “of the transience of material being”. Would he have learned about the temporariness of materialistic things if he hadn’t lived as a homeless man? Possibly. But because he did survive off of dumpsters, the idea hit him much more personally and significantly than it would have if he didn’t. Ehrenreich’s experiences touched her in a much different light. Her mental health was definitely more affected than she expected it to be and she had changed into a “different person altogether”. The unexpectedness and spontaneity in her life caused change in her character and actions.

So the main idea behind this? We should learn to live outside of our comfort zones. I feel like most people like routine. Security, predictability, and comfort are among the few reasons why a routine based life could seem desirable, but the missing part to this concept is growth. Without discomfort, there is no growth. Instead of living life through the same lens the whole time, try switching up the lenses or maybe even change what you decide to focus on. Maybe new connections will be made or new insights will be found. A life of forever complacency isn’t necessarily life at its finest.

The song of the week:

(loading...)