The Purest Experiences Are the Ones You Take for Granted
By: Max Phillips
Tags: Life Lessons, Self, Love, Lifestyle, Inspiration

The Purest Experiences Are the Ones You Take for Granted

I miss going to the cinema

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

I miss the cinema.

Everything about it; the screen-filling your eyes, the sound shaking your core, and the dark warping you into the experience.

I miss the feeling of walking out the door after a great film, entering another realm, and quickly dissecting it with friends and family.

I miss it because I took it for granted.

This year, we have missed a lot; friends, loved ones, gyms, pints. Before all of this, life wasn’t exactly straightforward. It never really is. But, looking back, it is strange to remember a time when I didn’t need to book a time slot at my local pub.

The simple things are the ones we take for granted the most. When the lockdown began, people went crazy and hosted quizzes galore, waking up hungover after a wild night on ‘house party.’

Now, though, people are bored. Christmas doesn’t feel like a rest bite; it’s just another thing we need to deal with. More than ever, we yearn for the simple things, the ones we take for granted.

The purest experiences are the ones that provide an effortless sense of escapism, and our desire for escape has only grown over the past year.

Picture any night out. Your friends catch up, and as you warm around each other’s company, your stories evolve, take different shapes, and twist down all sorts of avenues.

At the heart of all of your purest experiences is a good story. Whether it’s written by Christopher Nolan or your friend after their eighth pint, it’s an undervalued form of escapism.

The restrictions put on our lives are stumbling blocks on our storytelling abilities. No longer can we have pure moments. Instead, there are rules we all need to follow.

Here in the UK, when the first lockdown was in full swing, it felt like a dystopic world. Nearly every day was searing hot. I would work out in the garden, making up exercise routines as I went.

Back then, I worked in a health store, so I still went to work. The shop was barren, and the people who did come in would give me their thoughts on death rates, vaccines, and everything virus related.

Not once did I hear something positive.

People didn’t have access to other people’s stories. Everyone was doing the same thing, day in, day out.

I became resentful of everyone else’s views. I didn’t care if customer number 35 doesn’t “believe in social distancing,” nor did I want to hear about the number of confirmed cases for the 70th time that week.

Without the pure, simple escapism the cinema can provide, I became miserable. Moreover, the inability to experience a new story made me outright bored.

Part of the reason I dove headfirst into writing during the lockdown was the ability to tell a new story continually. I could pour my thoughts onto the page, and hopefully, help someone along the way.

At the minute, however, life is work without the fun. I still write a new story every week, but I yearn to experience one again. Whether it be a dive into my school years' nostalgia or the latest blockbuster, I want to get lost.

Escapism is pure. Find the purest experience you once took for granted, and don’t let it go.