I am not now, nor have I ever been, cool. But it sounds like it would be fun. I’d love to try it out. I see cool people from time to time, and they always seem to be having fun, whether they are starting jukeboxes with their fists, simply laughing with friends in a devil-may-care sort of way, or making hard stuff look easy. But is cool something you just are, or is it something you can become?
We must first figure out what “cool” is, so that we may better understand what makes it so fun-looking, and so we can try to figure out if it is attainable. But here we already hit a roadblock. One of the prime ingredients of being cool, is not caring about being cool. Here we have already failed the test. So if it is, in fact, attainable, it is not something that is attainable on purpose. Being cool has to happen naturally, or accidentally.
But what else is there to being cool besides not caring? I know lots of people who do not care about things, and they are not cool. They are annoying losers. No, in addition to not caring about what, and how, they are doing, cool people are intrinsically awesome and excellent. Cool people seem to have things come really easily to them, without working hard or worrying about it. I’m not saying that they don’t work hard or worry; I’m saying that they present an exterior of easy brilliance.
Doesn’t that sound fun? Being really great at life without worrying? No wonder I want to be cool so bad. I want to show up and have people flock to me because of my intense personal magnetism, and then watch me do something amazing. “Eh, whatever, no biggsies,” I would say, immediately demonstrating why I am not cool. Because saying that is smug, not cool. It is a fine line, and I am not on the cool side of it.
I do know a few people personally who are cool, and they seem to have pretty great lives, although I have discovered that they do work hard at things and have problems like anyone else. Even knowing this fact, however, I still am in awe whenever we hang out or I hear about the amazing things they are doing. How can they be so freaking cool?! And they don’t even know or care! I don’t think there is any chance for me when faced with such competition. I might be able to become 5% cooler with a lot of effort, but I will never be as “cool” as a cool person.
So I’m not cool. That’s okay. I’m used to it. I worry too much about how I am perceived by other people. I am good at a lot of things, but only with a lot of work and never to the degree that I maybe could be good at things with a little more work and focus. I struggle. I fret. And I laugh, sing, dance, and have a good time. Perhaps I don’t look cool doing it, but, as Popeye says, “I am what I am,” and what I am is not cool. And I guess I don’t need to be cool to be happy. But it sure sounds like it would be fun.