*Cha Cha on the Rocks—Straight up and a little shaken.

There’s this California Closets commercial. A customer named Erin tells her story. She says, “When I saw my kitchen, it was the first time I felt like an adult. I was like, ‘Yes! I made it. Things are going to be ok.’”

 If I were in that California Closet writer’s room, I would have said, “Hey guys, I’m not so sure feeling like an ‘adult’ is a good thing.—Adulting is serious.

Everyone looks at me annoyed because they were just about to break for lunch and I’m bringing negativity into the room when I say, “What if we change the line to, ‘It was the first time I felt successful.’”

“Erin, sweetheart,” the sound guy rolls his eyes but gives the direction anyway. “Can you do it for us one more time? Just like that. Only this time, instead of feeling like an adult, say that it was the first time you felt successful.”

At California Closets, we sell success. 

***

If only success were something you could buy. 

**

What is success anyway? 

*

You might say that this is a success! Each day, each moment I manage to not fade away. To not submit my consciousness to streams of consumption.—feeds and streams, I’m looking at you.—Distractions from my own thoughts. 

No thoughts in particular. Nothing specific that I am scared or ashamed to think about. Just a general aversion to the discomfort of being bored and/or exhaustion of thinking alone.

Avoiding myself. Maybe I am scared of what I will happen if I try.

But I don’t think so because I know for a fact that if I try, if I keep trying, I will succeed.  

***

When I think of success, the first thing that comes to mind is Freedom. 

Today, right now, I am more free than I have ever been. At the same time, I have never been so secure. Financially and emotionally. I feel like I’m at the right place at the right time and I’m ready to kick some ass.