Extraordinary Vs. Ordinary
Chasing the Ordinary
What’s more memorable, the extraordinary or the ordinary?
This question has been ringing in my head over the past couple months so I figured I’d write about it to help solidify my feelings about the topic. I’m in an interesting profession that has a lot of extraordinary moments. In the past couple months I’ve mountain biked through the rainy North Carolina mountains, surfed perfect waves in Morocco, climbed trees in Costa Rica, presented my films on stages in front of hundreds of people, skied some beautiful powder in Colorado and ran through some colorful landscapes in Nevada and Utah. To put it simply, life was extraordinary..
But then I came home
And I found myself just as happy, if not more happy, than I did when I was doing all those extraordinary activities.
My “ordinary” life in Boulder
My life in Boulder between those extraordinary moments is pretty ordinary. I’ve been spending more time at the climbing gym with my friends. I’ve been volunteering with the elementary school kids at my church. I’ve spent an hour dancing to Justin Timberlake in my kitchen while making dinner with my girlfriend. I went out to tacos with some old friends that were in town. And most notably, I played skeeball and lost terribly. And while all of this things seem especially mundane, I’ve been so content with my ordinary life.
When I think of what’s been so magical about life recently its, surprisingly, all those small things. It’s not the grandiose adventures but the quality relationships in my life that are making me feel fulfilled. Everybody from my most cherished loved ones to the people I seem to run into everywhere in town are all creating a really lovely environment for me to be happy. It’s nice to be known - not for my work, my expeditions, or my achievements but for who I am to others.
But it takes courage for me to seek out an ordinary life…
As strange as this sounds, it’s easier for me to experience extraordinary moments than ordinary ones. To find extraordinary experiences I simply have to show up and do my job. For example, if I want to go on a surf expedition in Senegal I’m only a few phone calls and a couple creative briefs away from potentially making that happen. But, I can’t continue to run from place to place to chase happiness. Happiness comes from who I am and who I surround myself with - not where I travel to or what I point my camera at.
I’ve become so convinced that magic is found in the ordinary. Forming community and building relationships is hard. It can be scary to act vulnerably and let people get to know you. When you’re going through a difficult situation with somebody, the solution isn’t to run off back to Morocco and find happiness in the peeling waves.
The solution is to work through those challenges, to act empathically, listen compassionately and love selflessly.
While that all takes courage, developing relationships and forming community can be seen as quite ordinary. On the surface, it doesn’t look as cool as traveling all over the world to capture wild landscapes or incredible adventures. But, I believe it’s so much more important.
If the extraordinary disappears I know I can be happy.
If the ordinary disappears, I know I couldn’t be.
Thanks for reading my thoughts about all this. It’s been on my heart for a while and although I’m sure this could lead to a longer conversation, it’s at least been grounding for me to put these thoughts somewhere.
I appreciate you, have a lovely rest of your day :)
About Roo Smith
(updated my bio for this post - click here for the work related bio)
Roo is a smiley optimistic dude based in Boulder, Colorado and most known to his friends as the guy that always seems to say yes to any sort of chocolate dessert placed in front of him. He’s produced mediocre results at the climbing gym, directed attention to himself for his seemingly perfect dance moves in inappropriate places like bookstores or coffeeshops, and has received notable recognition for his vegan pancake recipe that makes every camping trip one for the record books.
In his free-time you may catch him trail running around Boulder at a 10+ minute per mile pace or heading up to Eldora Ski Resort to get a few laps in before procrastinating from his work for a few more hours after he gets home :)