By Kaylee Johnson
Campus News
Escapism. It is a word that touches all of us, whether we would like to admit it or not. You may not even realize that you, like the rest of mankind, fancies escaping their mundane, laborious lives once in a while – but trust me, it’s normal. The way people escape could be infinitely studied by psychologists and others in neighboring fields. Naturally, the term “escapism” has been negatively associated with substance abuse and other dangerous addictions. And it is true that many people drown their miseries in mugs of stale beer or passionless one night stands – but escapism yields a completely different definition for the woman who shoots heroin vs. the couple that splurges on dessert during date night. For that emotionally paralyzed women, heroin is an escape from inner demons or some trauma she faced. For the happy couple, the dessert is a treat that will allow them to forget about the weight of the work week. But the reason I am writing this article is not to criticize addicts or sound self-righteous. Very simply, I am expressing my attraction to escapism, and all of the forms it can appear in, as it will pirouette in and out of our lives, until we reach finality.
Today I made a detailed list of the literary characters that I relate to most: Holden Caulfield, Jay Gatsby, Nicole Diver, and Basil Hallward. Revealing this list to you, reader, is the most personal thing I can share about myself. Even I, am still trying to understand the depths of my inner psyche, but somehow these characters mixed together resemble the exact same color as my aura. As you may have guessed by now, reading is my escape. Not only does it have the ability to transport me to wherever I want to go, but it also introduces me to characters I probably would not come across in the real world. Some of these characters have touched me greatly, for until I read J.D Salinger’s highly controversial, “The Catcher in The Rye,” I had never felt so connected to a main character. What comforts me so much about books is their tendency to never change. Sure, authors like James Patterson will keep writing the same old lusterless, formulaic mystery novels, but those really powerful books – the ones that seem to make bookshelves vibrate – those will still be around centuries from now, when you and I are long gone. Good books are far more memorable than us, reader.
Members of my family have said that travel is my form of escapism, and I continually fail to come up with an argument against their accusation. I plan trips months in advance and mentally check out when I step in an airport or aboard a ship. My mind is wrapped up in passport stamps and the symbolism in my vacation books. Too often, I have criticized myself for being a perpetual escapist – running away from adversity, but if I had never escaped I don’t know where I would be right now. The books I have read, the journals I have filled, the trips I have taken have undeniably changed me and my outlook on life. When I told a fellow journalist that I am writing a piece on escapism, they assumed I was writing about how the combat the “issue.” The problem is, where most people see gray, I see color – which explains why I believe people should embrace every aspect of escapism, in moderation of course.
A close family member of mine is dying of cancer, and selfishly it has made me more philosophical about how to spend the limited amount of time I have on this planet. The clock will not stop ticking, even If I work tirelessly every single day. Nobody is yelling at my uncle for watching football on Sundays or being too devoted to the Catholic church now. What he needs now is devotion and love, not day to day stress. In the big picture, you will be grateful that you escaped every once in a while – the people that don’t know how to close their eyes to stress burn out quickly. My thoughts probably contradicted everything you have ever heard from your parents, professors, and doctors, but I also like to escape with deep thought, and this one came to me during a humid afternoon on a family road trip to Florida. Go escape now, reader. You might just find out something new about yourself.
Kaylee Johnson attended Adirondack Community College and now is a junior at the College of Saint Rose. Comment on this story online at www.cccn.us.
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