Spontaneity

One of my guilty pleasures is watching on the television ‘Come dine with me’. The British version of the program can be really fun. The commentator has a really caustic sense of humour and the contestants can be quite colourful. On one of the episodes I was watching, there was an interesting conversation on the table regarding doing spontaneous things. So the question was asked, that I want to ask myself and you: ‘what’s the most spontaneous thing you've done?’

Spontaneity: noun – the condition of being spontaneous; spontaneous behaviour or action

Spontaneous: adjective - happening or done in a natural, often sudden way, without any planning or without being forced.

So, what was the most spontaneous thing I've ever done? Hmmmm. That will need lots of thinking. For me what’s when the problem starts. You see, words like ‘sudden’ and ‘without any planning’ don’t really agree with me. I like being in control of situations. I’m not the type of person that will leave on sudden holidays without having a specific destination, or on impulse decide to go bungee jumping just because I saw it while driving by a bridge. I can never see myself waking up with a hangover in a motel in Scotland for example, just because... Even, to move in with ‘JJ’ took months of persuasion and thinking, planning.

OK, I’m not a total freak. I don’t have to plan every little thing in my life. I can still get up in the morning and take the train for a nice day trip somewhere, or simply change my plans the last minute and do something completely different! But these are not really the things expected as an answer to a question like that. The answer should be something more profound and surprising. Instead of ‘I decided the last minute to go to the British Museum instead of the National Portrait Gallery’, a better answer would be ‘I followed the man of my dreams and moved to Australia’ or ‘just this morning I decided to quit my job and become an artist’!

The closest I can get to being spontaneous (I think) is the fact that I began jogging/running and went on scuba diving lessons! Both of these activities were suggested by friends unexpectedly and my positive answer came similarly without too much thinking. An old work colleague who’s also my gym buddy asked me one day to follow him on his afternoon run that same day! I remember it went awfully bad. I was out of breath, fighting for my dear life, I think around 250 meters into the run. But I was hooked and wanted to try again. The same thing more or less happened with scuba diving. A female friend of mine said she’s booked her lessons and whether I’d like to join her that same weekend. I said yes and never looked back. I could even say that I started this blog on a bit of an impulse these years ago. I didn't know what I was doing then and I still don’t know to this day.

I've made many life changing choices in my life. I've decided to permanently leave my home country and make London my new home. I've decided to move in with my boyfriend and now buy with him a house. I might not be the most spontaneous person I know, but I am very happy and grateful being me.