The Authenticity Project

by Clare Pooley

Julian wore his solitude and loneliness like old, ill-fitting shoes. He was used to them—in many ways they had grown comfortable—but over time they were bending him out of shape, causing calluses and bunions that would never go away.

Then he’d discovered that routines were crucial. They created buoys he could cling to to keep himself afloat.

Not about the latest celebrity eviction from some house, or island, or jungle, but about the important things—the things that keep you awake at night.

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift,” she’d chant to herself as she brushed her teeth. “It’s not happy people who are grateful, it’s grateful people who are happy,” she’d say as she brushed her hair.

Meet force with softness. Recipe for life.

When did you last get on a train without knowing where it was going? When have you ordered a weird-sounding dish off a menu, for the fun of eating something you weren’t expecting?

Rather confusingly, there were three Elsas currently registered. That film, Frozen, had a lot to answer for.

Surely it would be better to live a messy, flawed, sometimes not very pretty life that was real and honest, than to constantly try to live up to a life of perfection that was actually a sham?