If you look at the archives for this blog from October 2012, you will see that I blogged every day that month.
It was a lot of writing, not all of it good, not all of it bad. It was part of a 31 Amazing Days Challenge, inspired by the book This Ordinary Adventure by Christine and Adam Jeske.
Amazing days are defined by them as “anything that made a day unusual, silly, daring, faithful, wacky, or bold.” Amazing Days “drew us out of the mundane ruts of life and into small (and large) attempts to make the most of life.” (This Ordinary Adventure, p. 9-10)
Intentionally creating amazing days gets difficult after a while.
And for me, it’s probably about to get harder.
Next Tuesday, I start a full-time job as a publicist at a publishing house.
It will be a learning curve, in more ways than I’m probably aware of even right now.
40 hours a week, maybe more sometimes.
Big changes.
I’m confident I can learn what I may not know about how to do the job.
But something I can’t learn from a boss, coworkers, or Google is how to make sure my life outside of work does not become so routine, usual, and rut-esque that I become hopelessly bored.
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The idea started with a calendar I got when I was in Edinburgh last May. It has pictures of landscapes of the city and landmarks, and its dates are marked with many holidays that aren’t celebrated in the U.S.
Like Burns Day, in celebration of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. It takes place on his birthday, January 25, so I talked 2 friends into celebrating with me last Friday.
We had a very nontraditional Burns Supper. Not personally knowing many people who actually celebrate this holiday, Wikipedia became the best source available.
The traditional meal consists of haggis, mashed potatoes (tatties), and mashed turnips (neeps). There are several speeches and toasts, and guests take turns reading poems by Burns.
Haggis.
Photo Credit: Flickr User zoonabar, Creative Commons
We had mashed potatoes and a dessert similar to one I had on my visit to Edinburgh. Haggis isn’t readily available in this area, nor do I imagine I’d like it, but I stumbled through “Address to a Haggis” anyway. The evening ended with Braveheart, which is at least set in Scotland.
It was by no means a perfect or traditional Burns Supper, but that’s not really the point.
It was unusual.
It was fun.
It was different.
It was amazing.
And so as I work my full-time job, I’m going to continue to celebrate holidays I find on my calendar. I haven’t yet decided what the next one I celebrate will be, but again, it will not be a perfect celebration. And again, that’s ok.
Perfection is not the point.
Days don’t need perfection to be amazing. Instead, these are the imperfections, the oddities, the random celebrations that will keep life interesting. And a little amazing.
Til next time…
~Brianna!~
p.s. Do you know of any other random holidays I might be able to celebrate this year?
The Art of Becoming 
We’re excited to welcome you, Brianna, and remember that your JOB can be amazing too! As for holidays, I just learned about something called Human Rights Day. It happens in either December or January, I believe. See you next week!
Hi Chad, thanks for the good reminder–I certainly hope to find a healthy dose of amazing in my job. I looked up Human Rights Day, and it happens December 10, so I have plenty of time to plan a good celebration for that one. See you next week!